Navy's mini-sub completes sea tests

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Six years behind schedule and at least triple its budget, a Navy SEAL mini-submarine has successfully completed final sea testing off Pearl Harbor, and could be pressed into service in late summer with the attack submarine USS Greeneville as a host ship.

The Advanced SEAL Delivery System mini-sub gets a ride on the tail of the USS Charlotte in Pearl Harbor. The mini-sub has successfully completed final sea testing. Photo courtesy U.S. Navy

The Defense Department increasingly is relying on special operations forces to accomplish its missions, especially in the fight against terrorism.

But the General Accounting Office, while noting that ASDS is a major development effort for naval special operations, said in a March report that key decisions lie ahead for the program whose first mini-sub should have been delivered in July 1997. The entire program, including six boats and two facilities to house them, was to cost $527 million, according to the GAO. But the cost of the program has risen to more than $2 billion.

The final test results for ASDS, which has been dogged by battery problems and excessive underwater noise, will be reviewed before a final decision is made to proceed with the five additional boats that are planned.

Although the Navy did not release the final sea test results, officials said evaluations with the prototype ASDS Boat 1 — carried piggyback on the attack submarine USS Charlotte — went according to plan. A final report will be issued in several months on the Northrop Grumman project.

Before the tests, the submarine based with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One at the ASDS facility in Pearl City made 115 dives, logging more than 1,000 hours under water.

"We were successful in completing the operational evaluation, and all of the missions were completed successfully," Maria Zacharias, a spokeswoman with Naval Sea Systems Command, said of the Hawai'i testing.

The mini-sub, which rides attached to the top of a much larger Los Angeles-class submarine, is expected to have increased range, speed, and capacity over the current SEAL Delivery Vehicle, which is an open, wet submersible that transports SEALs in scuba gear, exposing them longer to energy-sapping cold water.

The boxy, 8-foot-diameter ASDS submarine operated by a crew of two is connected to a host ship via a watertight hatch, has sophisticated sonar and electro-optical surveillance systems and a hyperbaric recompression chamber, and is capable of dropping off eight SEALs close to shore.

Only the Charlotte and Greeneville are configured to carry the ASDS, which was delivered to Pearl Harbor in 2000 for testing. Four Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines being converted to guided-missile subs also will have the capability of transporting the mini-subs.

The GAO in its March report said during the past year, the ASDS program "made considerable progress in addressing technical difficulties," but the Navy had not been able to develop an adequate propulsion battery and the first boat was not quiet enough.

Debbi McCallam, a spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman, said Thursday that new Lithium Ion battery technology is making progress under several suppliers, and the Navy recently completed and installed a new propeller design that addresses many of the noise concerns.

McCallam previously said subsequent subs will be more cost-effective, and production will be completed on a more timely basis. The program will go before the Navy for a decision on follow-on production in early fiscal 2004.

During testing in September in Hawai'i, ASDS Boat 1 successfully completed multiple launch and recoveries from the Greeneville over several days.

In late summer, the Greeneville could deploy with ASDS Boat 1 as part of a new Navy battle grouping called an Expeditionary Strike Group. Based around the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu, the strike group adds a submarine, cruiser, destroyer, frigate and P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft to the traditional amphibious ready group of Marines and three ships.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.