Navy SEALs go ashore in new mini-submarine
U.S. Navy photo
The Navy's special operations mini-submarine, designed to carry up to eight fully equipped SEALs, can be flown to theaters of operation in the belly of a C-17 or C-5 cargo plane.
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Somewhere off the coast of Hawai'i — in the dark of night and likely without so much as a ripple on the surface — U.S. Navy SEALs earlier this month changed the way they go about their stealthy business.
On Aug. 1 and 2, Advanced SEAL Delivery System Boat 1, a one-of-a-kind 65-foot mini-submarine, dropped off SEALs and their equipment at a pre-determined underwater spot, and later picked them up.
The milestone was one of several reached in the ongoing development of the Navy's first mini-sub to clandestinely deliver SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) commandos closer to shore, and with less time exposed to bone-chilling water in scuba gear.
The $292 million ASDS, based in Pearl City, could be ready for operational evaluation next spring.
Next month, launch and recovery operations will be conducted for the first time from the USS Greeneville, one of two Pearl Harbor-based submarines configured to carry the ASDS piggyback style.
A connecting hatch allows transit between the two subs.
"This first-of-its-kind system provides a new level of operational capability to our SEAL forces in high-threat areas," said Fran Holian, vice president of Northrop Grumman Oceanic and Naval Systems.
The unit produced the mini-sub for the Navy's Special Operations Command.
On May 30, the ASDS successfully completed 12 docking scenarios with a testing platform fixed to the ocean floor off Hawai'i simulating a submarine docking position, a step Northrop Grumman called a "critical milestone" leading up to launch and recovery testing from Greeneville next month.
Operational evaluation is scheduled to be conducted in the spring using another Pearl-based submarine, the USS Charlotte.
Both the Charlotte and Greeneville are Los Angeles-class attack submarines.
The ASDS has successfully completed more than 100 dives and more than 500 hours of deep-water testing off the shores of Hawai'i.
Northrop Grumman said 95 percent of the testing is complete.
"These key milestones in the development of this important program will help ensure our naval forces continue to have the technologically advanced equipment for today's critical missions," Holian said.
The mini-sub, delivered to Pearl Harbor in 2000 for testing, is homeported with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One at the ASDS facility in Pearl City.
The SEALs keep a low profile here.
Two years ago, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One asked the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board for permission to cross Keawa'ula Beach Park after midnight twice a year — with rubber training weapons — for exercises involving objectives at the Air Force tracking station on Kuaokala Ridge.
In the spring of 2001, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, announced the Navy had issued a $20.5 million contract with S&M Sakamoto in Pearl City for the construction of a training facility for SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One and a "dry deck" shelter operations facility at Pearl City Peninsula.
The 60-ton, battery-powered ASDS has a cruise speed of 8 knots, a crew of two, and can carry eight fully equipped SEALs.
The boxy, whalelike sub, which does not have a sail atop its hull, can be flown to a theater of operation in the belly of a C-17 or C-5 cargo plane.
The sub has a hyperbaric chamber from which SEALs exit and enter at depth, and advanced sonar and electro-optical systems for conducting shore surveillance.
"ASDS is definitely the future of both the SEAL and the submarine community, as far as undersea special operations are concerned," an ASDS pilot told the Navy's Undersea Warfare Magazine.
"The vehicle is very easy to operate. There's a joystick we use to control the vehicle, and the only thing that takes time to get used to, from a submarine perspective, is how to use onboard computer screens to ballast and control the submersible," said the pilot, who was not identified for mission security reasons. "We can plug in depths and courses, and let the computer drive the vehicle through entered waypoints."
The ASDS is seen as a leap in technology compared with SEAL Delivery Vehicles that deploy commandos from shelters of the type fitted to the former Pearl-based submarine USS Kamehameha before it was decommissioned in April.
In that operation, six to eight SEALs ride "wet" in open-water submersibles, requiring the use of scuba gear and limiting travel to air-tank capacity.
The cold-water ride also means SEALs expend energy just getting to the beach.
But the ASDS program hasn't all been smooth sailing, either.
Bloomberg News reported Northrop Grumman is six years late and nearly four times over budget in delivering the new submarines.
The Pentagon's 1994 contract called for delivery of the first mini-sub for $78 million. The cost now for Boat 1 is $292 million, according to Bloomberg.
Battery problems and underwater noise have continued to dog the program, and the House Appropriations Committee added $22 million to the defense budget to pay for continued testing, but cut $34 million for a second sub, Bloomberg reported.
Northrop Grumman is working on a premature failure rate with the silver-zinc batteries it uses, according to Special Operations Command.
Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Debbi McCallam said on Thursday that because Special Operations Command has "slip-
ped" procurement by two years, advance procurement money for ASDS has been moved to research and evaluation for Boat 1 to continue testing and "to accelerate development of battery technology and to continue the focus on acoustic development."
McCallam said the initial investment will allow subsequent boats to be built more cost effectively, and production to be completed on a more timely basis.
Four Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines slated to be converted into guided-missile subs also will have the capability of transporting the ASDS.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
