541 
At the present, the Soviet underwater habitat program is largely 
inactive. Apparently, the only future habitat program is to be Chernor- 
mor-100. The new habitat will be mobile and autonomous. It will 
probe progressively deeper until a continental shelf-depth of about 
300 meters is attained.*> The status of this program is not known 
at the present time. It is believed that the Soviets will progress slowly 
toward attaining an operational diving and habitat depth of 300 
meters. 
Bentos-300, another autonomous habitat has been reportedly under 
development since the late 1960’s (Table 3.).°°°§ This habitat would 
be able to maintain 10 divers at depths down to 300 meters for 
up to 30 days. The status of this habitat is unknown. It was reported 
in 1972 that prototype development was underway, but there has 
been no confirmation of this report. 
Unlike certain United States (Sealab series) and French (Pre-Con- 
tinent series) habitats of the 1960’s which were deployed to saturation 
diving depths of more than 100 meters for durations of up to 30 
days, Soviet habitat programs have not been deployed to depths ex- 
ceeding 30 meters. Similarly, while the greatest duration of a United 
States habitat program was 59 days (Tektite-I in 1969), the greatest 
duration of a Soviet habitat program was 52 days (Chernomor-2m 
in 1971). Both the United States and French habitat programs have 
and continue to be qualitatively superior to the Soviet program in 
terms of habitat construction, life-support technology, depth capability, 
and program duration and diversity.°*® Western habitat programs have 
been characterized by geographical flexibility of deployment whereas 
all Soviet habitat programs to date have been conducted in a relatively 
small region of the Black Sea. Soviet habitat programs have continued 
to lag their Western counterpart programs both| programmatically and 
technologically. 
DIVING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
The Soviet Union is only slowly developing the capability to send 
men to depths exceeding 100 meters. In contrast, Western countries 
such as the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy, have 
rapidly developed both military and civilian deep saturation diving 
capabilities during the past decade. Such a capability permits the 
diver, equipped with an insulated or heated suit and ® underwater 
breathing equipment supplied with specially mixed breathing gases 
(helium-oxygen or helium- -nitgrogen-oxygen) to work at depths exceed- 
ing 100 meters for relatively short periods of time. Western divers 
have now attained the capability to dive to depths exceeding 300 
meters. One benefit of such a capability is that divers can be sent 
to great depths to carry out complicated tasks which are beyond 
the capabilities of manned submersibles or remote control vehicles 
55 Stefanov, G. Underwater research in the Black Sea. Underwater Journal and Information Bul- 
letin, Vol. 4, No. 6, 1972, 249-251. 
56 Snegov, S. In the steps of Chernomor. Sovetskaya Latvilya, June 1, 1974, p. 2. 
-°7 Danilov, I. Underwater research in the U.S.S.R. Op. cit. p. 274-280. 
58 Boylan, L. Underwater Activities in the Soviet Union. Op. cit. p. 55-60. 
5® Manned Undersea Activites of the Federal Agencies ane ee of Manned Undersea 
Research Submersibles and Habitats, December 1972, Op. cit., p. 
6 Dodge, C.H. International diving programs and technology. NOAA/NAS/NAE Joint Workshops 
on Manned Undersea Activities. Oct. 17-20, 1972, 13 p. 
