Ceremony honors Hawai'i SEAL team
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
PEARL CITY PENINSULA — The commando submersible has a skin that's the same space-age material that's on the Stealth fighter.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Rivet-like fasteners are made out of titanium, as are a series of tubes containing the silver-zinc batteries that power it.
The Advanced SEAL Delivery System, housed at Pearl Harbor, is the first of six subs being built for a costly special operations program.
Sneaking up closer to shore than was ever possible before, it can take and transmit pictures practically in real time.
The Advanced SEAL Delivery System, the only one of its kind in the world, has a $47 million waterfront home on 22 acres at Pearl City Peninsula, and the Navy yesterday celebrated its completion.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, paid tribute to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One and the Navy frogmen who were their predecessors.
"I was in Saipan and Tinian during World War II and I likely benefited from the courageous success of the first underwater demolition teams," Akaka said. "As I read and learned more about (SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One's) history, I'm increasingly impressed by the way this unit has transformed to effectively meet changing threats as our nation is engaged in different conflicts."
The team of 45 officers and 230 enlisted personnel — 93 of them Sea, Air, Land commandos — quietly provides special operations forces in the Pacific and Central Command areas of responsibility. It had been based on Ford Island.
Because of the unit's secretive missions, details aren't provided, but SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One has deployed elements in support of Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, receiving two Presidential Unit Citations.
Also among the team's equipment are five SEAL Delivery Vehicles — "wet" submersibles in which divers wear scuba tanks in convertible-like vehicles, three "dry deck" shelters to transport the vehicles on the back of Los Angeles-class subs, and a support ship, the C-Commando.
The centerpiece is the Advanced SEAL Delivery System, or ASDS, controversial for its cost overruns, but a concept that Hawai'i-based SEALs say is effective.
Sixty-five feet long and operated by a crew of two, the boxy, eight-foot diameter ASDS is connected to a host ship via a watertight hatch and is capable of dropping off eight SEALs close to shore.
Six subs are planned and a second is expected to be based at Pearl City Peninsula. The entire program was to cost $527 million, according to a General Accounting Office report, but the program was predicted to rise to more than $2 billion.
The Navy last July took delivery of the submersible, and it rode piggyback on the USS Greeneville as part of the first deployment to the Persian Gulf in late summer of 2003 of Expeditionary Strike Group One, an experimental ship grouping that included the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Port Royal.
SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One Executive Officer Lt. Phil Regier likened the ASDS to an underwater space shuttle, it's so complicated. But he's sold.
"I love it. It brings a capability that is revolutionary with the sensors that are organic to the system, and the range it can go," Regier said. "It's the ultimate stealth."
Akaka told those present for the flag-raising ceremony he supports Army "transformation" plans, including the move in Hawai'i to a Stryker brigade of nearly 300 eight-wheeled armored vehicles.
Akaka said Pearl Harbor remains in the running for an aircraft carrier, but he does not expect a decision soon.
"I would say that it's moving. The Pacific has taken a higher consideration," he said. Guam also was being looked at.
"And there are other things to be considered, too, because we are looking at Barbers Point as a place where they could keep the (carrier) planes on the ground."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
