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U.S. Navy Introduces the Next-Generation Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080202-14
Release Date: 2/2/2008 7:25:00 PM

By Dan Broadstreet, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division Public Affairs

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (NNS) -- Accomplishing a System Certification in January has paved the way for the U.S. Navy to begin improving it's closed-circuit MK 16 MOD 1 Underwater Breathing Apparatus (UBA) making diving safer, easier and more efficient for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) divers.

According to Wes Hughson, customer advocate for Diving at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD), the newly modified diving rig is known as the Next-Generation Underwater Breathing Apparatus or NUBA.

"Also known as the UBA MK 16 MOD 2, the first 20 NUBAs are due to be delivered this March for checkout dives prior to issuing follow-on units for EOD use," Hughson said.

"This is a self-contained diving rig, a re-breather that is ideal for Mine Countermeasures operations and an improvement over-the-older rig because its electronics have been modernized to increase reliability and better automate oxygen concentrations; it reduces pre-dive setup times; and, it has been streamlined to allow for ease of mobility," said Chief Navy Diver (SW) Jeffrey Landry, stationed at NEDU, Panama City.

ITT Contractor Neil Patterson, senior UBA technician and consultant for the EOD Program Management Office, said the rig's improved electronics and consolidated display readings made diving with the rig much easier.

"This rig will be configured to enable EOD divers to dive deep and to dive on specific mine threats," Patterson said. "All the diver has to do is put the rig on his back, insert the mouthpiece, start breathing, and the rig will do everything on its own."

Terry Adams, NSWC PCD Project Manager for EOD Fleet Diving, explained that due to recycling, a closed-circuit UBA re-breather was more efficient than Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus or (SCUBA) gear, whereas with open-circuit SCUBA only a portion of the oxygen in each breath is used by the diver and the rest is exhaled as bubbles.

"In a re-breather, the diver is recycling the majority of his gas. Carbon dioxide is removed and oxygen is added to maintain a breathable mix," Adams said, adding that this makes the rig ideal for low-noise operations, because it can operate with few or no bubbles released into the water column.

According to Hughson, NUBA also demonstrated "outstanding" reliability during testing.

"The MK 16 MOD 2 did not experience a single operational failure during 514 hours of underwater testing," Hughson said.

Mike Palmer, NSWC PCD's head of the Diving Systems Branch, said the facilities required for developing NUBA's system specifications and testing were all centrally located at the Naval Support Activity Panama City (NSA PC).

"Located at NSA PC, we have NSWC PCD, NEDU and NDSTC (Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center)," Palmer said. "This helped us conduct manned and unmanned testing at the same site – a huge savings of taxpayers' dollars."

NEDU's Chief Navy Diver (SW) Charles Patterson, who participated in the actual manned phases of testing NUBA, said that "huge savings" were also due in part because NDSTC was open to sharing their facilities.

"Because our Ocean Simulation Facility was undergoing a scheduled overhaul, NDSTC and their staff of experts allowed us to bring our divers and equipment over and use their recompression chambers, or wet pots, which is what we actually call them," Patterson said. "They also contributed by transporting us out to deep sea in one of their diving boats to conduct the deep-dive phase of our manned testing – another significant cost savings when you consider what costs would have been to charter a vessel for those dives."

According to Adams and Hughson, pending approval of the first 20 production MOD 2s, fleet, fill and training will proceed in accordance with the established production schedule.

For more news from Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, visit www.navy.mil/local/NSWC/.