Construction Mechanic Second Class Steve Fenske, left, assigned to Underwater Construction Team 1; Navy Diver Third Class Ryan Bujacich, center, and Navy Diver Third Class Nick Frantz, both assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, conduct a ship-husbandry dive on the guided-missile cruiser USS Hue City (CG-66) in Souda Bay, Greece, on 3 July 2017. (U.S. Navy / Sean Furey)
A small contingent of highly trained men and women work to keep Navy ships and submarines in the water, ready to get under way at a moment’s notice to execute fleet tasking. These Navy divers carrying out the underwater ship husbandry (UWSH) mission often work long, exhausting shifts in cold, inhospitable environments to accomplish repairs to surface ships, aircraft carriers, and submarines that otherwise would require expensive dry-docking. From emplacing a simple cofferdam that allows a ship’s engineering team to swap out a fire pump, to changing an aircraft carrier propeller, these in-water repairs save the Navy hundreds of millions of dollars. However, in an era where U.S. Navy forward presence is steadily increasing, the UWSH force needs to grow and be organized differently for success.
A Growing Job
Navy divers work in naval ship and submarine repair facilities in the continental United States, Hawaii, Guam, and Japan, as well as at various temporary assigned duty (TAD) locations around the world. In addition to the UWSH mission, they also perform salvage, special warfare support, aircrew training, experimental diving, and submarine rescue, and fill various staff and instructor billets.
The total Navy diver force consists of approximately 1,200 enlisted divers and 45 chief warrant officers. Of these personnel, 340 support the global UWSH mission. This is considered shore duty, and yet UWSH divers often work much longer than the standard work week. In 2016, in-water ship repair accounted for 16,735 dives and 22,848 hours under water. That is the equivalent of 952 days beneath the surface. These numbers do not include the hours devoted to maintaining and preparing equipment, planning jobs, and training. The UWSH diving work in Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Fleets (excluding Japan) is done by TAD teams supplied by commands that have never been manned or equipped for this additional workload. These factors drive the extended work weeks and place excessive stress on the UWSH diving force.
With the fleet smaller today than at any time in the past 100 years, it is more important than ever to ensure the vast majority of maritime assets are available for tasking at a moment’s notice. In keeping with the Chief of Naval Operation’s (CNO) Navigation Plan (2016–20) and the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP), it is imperative to expand and make more agile the UWSH force so it better supports the CNO’s tenets: warfighting first, operate forward, and be ready. Doing so will allow the force to pivot to wherever the forward naval presence is without having to realign commands and relocate personnel and equipment. In addition, the Navy must ensure the UWSH force is appropriately manned to avoid overstressing divers and supervisors, while being sensitive to the work-family balance.
The CNO’s Navigation Plan calls for a steady-state increase of 20 deployed ships (from 95 to 115). This will include a 40 percent increase in the Middle East to 36 ships and significant increases in the Pacific. With additional ships moving to the Middle East, Singapore, and Rota, Spain, the time to resource a larger UWSH force is now.
A Better Model
UWSH work in these overseas locations currently is accomplished by diving commands from Japan, San Diego, Guam, and Virginia that are not programmed, manned, or equipped to respond to the full range of potential UWSH TAD work. A better model would be to increase manning at the newly formed sea-duty contingents at the two largest UWSH diving commands—Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) in Norfolk, Virginia; and South West Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) in San Diego, California. This would allow MARMC and SWRMC to manage the personnel and equipment necessary for the specific UWSH mission regardless of where it was located. The sea-duty contingents at MARMC and SWRMC allow divers to acquire sea-duty credit for time away from home port and provide the Navy with highly mobile UWSH diving forces capable of meeting mission requirements around the globe—a need formerly met by UWSH divers stationed on various ship and submarine tenders. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the vast majority of the UWSH force was a seagoing force on these platforms.
Establishing standalone operational UWSH diving commands in Rota, Bahrain, and Singapore would be a mistake, because it would be exorbitantly expensive to build the support infrastructure needed for Navy diving training, equipping, qualification, certification, and inspections. These overhead requirements would be much easier to absorb at the larger commands in Norfolk and San Diego.
By increasing the number of Navy divers at MARMC and SWRMC and shifting to an expeditionary mentality to support ship maintenance, the Navy will create a highly mobile and versatile UWSH force capable of pivoting to wherever the requirement is without overextending existing dive commands. Mobile Diving Salvage Unit Two in Norfolk and One in Hawaii have operated this way successfully for years. The explosive ordnance disposal and SEAL communities also operate this way. Because the maintenance system that serves ships and submarines can be cumbersome and resistant to change, it has not planned for or reacted to changes to the overseas Navy presence. Navy divers operate with and understand the expeditionary forces and could easily adapt the UWSH mission to this type of environment.
It’s time for the UWSH force to align with the CNO’s tenets in supporting a more forward-deployed Navy and preparing for global contingencies. The diving community supporting the in-water ship repair mission must change now to better align with this reality and keep ships and submarines in the fight.