1076-242/03 



As the state-of-the-art in undersea tech- 

 nology advances in navigation and guidance, 

 remote viewing and search capability, and 

 renuDte manipulative devices, there will 

 be an increasing trend toward the use of 

 immanned, tethered vehicles. And, as 

 technology advances in cybernetics, adap- 

 tive computer techniques, signal processing, 

 and data storage and transmittal techniques, 

 xmmanned, untethered robot vehicles will 

 also Increase in utilization. Table 3 also 

 shows ownership of vehicles by country 

 with the United States leading with 64 

 vehicles followed by France with 26 and 

 Soviet Union with 19. Fifty percent of 

 the vehicles listed in Table 1 were built 

 in the United States. 



MANNED VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT 



The major undersea vehicle builders in the 

 world are Perry Oceanographies, Inc., 

 Riviera Beach, Florida; and International 

 Hydrodynamics Company (HYCO) Ltd. , North 

 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 

 Perry's most recent unique development is 

 the PC-16 vehicle designed for 3,000 foot 

 operation using three interconnecting 

 spheres and providing one-atmosphere 

 transfer capabilities. Construction of two 

 new vehicles, of the PC-18 class, have also 

 been started. The Perry built PC-1202, 

 now owned and operated by InterSub , is 

 illustrated in Figure 1. 



HYCO has a unique system under development 

 called TAURUS that will be capable of 

 operation to 2000 feet with a two ton 

 payload capability and diver lockout at 

 lesser depths. HYCO's AQUARIUS I operated 

 by Hyco Subsea is illustrated in Figure 2. 



France 



COMEX, Marseille, France, has developed a 

 new series of observation and work vehicles 

 called MOANA. The first in the series, 

 MOANA I is illustrated in Figure 3. 

 Another unique development by COMEX- is 

 the GLOBULE vehicle illustrated in Figure 4 

 It is a lightweight two-man subsea heli- 

 copter with 360 degrees visibility designed 

 especially for survey and inspection tasks 

 down to 200 meters (660 feet). The GLOBULE 

 is capable of being piloted to the ocean 

 bottom where it positions itself on the 

 platform of a tractor driven cable burying 



machine and secures itself by four clamping 

 magnets. In this mode, the GLOBULE pilot 

 takes over the control of the machine 

 which can bury a 3-inch cable about 3 feet 

 deep. A pressurized water jet is used to 

 make the trench. 



Soviet Union 



The Soviet Union now has 12 manned vehicles 

 and 7 unmanned vehicles , about double what 

 was reported in the International Survey ^-'•^ 

 made a little more than one year ago. One 

 of their latest submersibles , ARGUS, is 

 illustrated in Figure 5 operating near 

 Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. An interesting 

 new vehicle, the amphibious imdersea 

 research vehicle TRITON, is reported to be 

 imder development at the Giprorybflat Insti 

 tute, which designs many Soviet vehicles. 

 The TRITON is primarily intended for con- 

 struction and support activities in the 

 continental shelf zone and as a true amphib- 

 ian, it will be able to navigate underwater, 

 on the surface of the water, and on land. 

 Except for TINRO I, which is no longer 

 operational, none of the Soviet vehicles have 

 incorporated diver lockout capabilities. 



Germany 



In West Germany, the leading submersible 

 builders are Bruker-Physik in Karlsruhe 

 and Ingenieurkontor Lubeck (IKL). Bruker- 

 Physik has built three submersibles in 

 their Mermaid series Figure 6 and IKL has 

 built 2 submersibles in their TOURS 

 series. Last year, IKL directed by 

 Professor U. Gabler prepared several 

 advanced designs for surface independent, 

 self-supporting, compact submarine type 

 systems TOURS 430, TOURS 170, and Deep 

 Subsea Working Systems, DSWS 300 and 

 DSWS 600. The TOURS 430, illustrated 

 in Figure 7 , is a submarine configuration 

 42.5 meters long with a submerged dis- 

 placement of 830 metric tons and a depth 

 capability of 500 meters. It is equipped 

 with a deep diving system for locking out 

 4 divers, and a drilling device that can 

 be used for bottom sampling and bore 

 testing on the sea bed to a drilling depth 

 of 200 meters. This type of system con- 

 figuration is also suitable for use as 

 a mobile imderwater laboratory. 



