Development of an Enhanced Underwater Navigation Capability for Military Combat Divers

摘要

Military combat divers conduct underwater navigation missions in conditions with extremely poor visibility. Critical to the success of these missions is accurate underwater navigation, as well as staying within closed circuit oxygen rebreather depth limits. Unfortunately, handheld or tactical board mounted compasses, depth gauges, and chronometers can become virtually useless in the zero visibility environment. This has been an ongoing and serious limitation to military combat diving operations. Naval Surface Warfare Center-Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) is the U.S. Navy's leading laboratory for research, development, testing, evaluation, and technology transition of diving and life support systems, including diver visual display systems. Under a recent joint government development program, NSWC PCD developed a prototype enhanced underwater navigation system for military combat divers. The prototype comprises a micro display, optical lens, electronic compass, depth sensor, microprocessor, associated electronics, and battery integrated into an adjustable position optical display that is mounted to the side of a low volume dive mask. The system provides clear visual display of the diver's compass heading, depth, and swim time regardless of poor visibility conditions. Divers can turn the system ON/OFF, adjust display brightness, use the stopwatch function, and lock their compass heading using the NAVLOK feature. When the NAVLOK button is pressed, the displayed compass heading is boxed, and a trackball icon appears to assist divers in staying on heading. The system operates on a single 3V lithium ion battery which provides 20 + hours of operation. Joint service military divers evaluated the prototypes, conducting a series of underwater navigation exercises in both daylight and nighttime conditions. Participants strongly recommended rapid transition of this new underwater navigation tool to military production status. This paper describes the technical and operational need for such a system by the combat diving community, specifics of the prototype design phases, results of in-water testing by joint service combat divers, and the rapid technology transition plan using a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) for bringing this much needed capability to the joint service military diving community.