NAVSEA Salvage Engineers Help Raise Cold-War Era Sub

31 July 2008: NAVSEA Salvage Engineers Help Raise Cold-War Era Sub
By Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications

SUPSALV_Works

WASHINGTON — Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA) salvage engineers developed the detailed refloating plan that enabled Navy divers to successfully bring a sunken Cold War Soviet submarine back to the surface of Portsmouth Harbor, R.I., July 25.

The decommissioned 282-foot submarine, originally designated as K-77 and commonly known as Juliett 484, was eventually purchased by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation as a floating museum. The sub had been modified with tourist access openings, flooded and sank in 2007 during a severe storm.

As the military’s authority on all aspects of ocean engineering, including salvage, in-water ship repair, contracting, towing, diving safety, and equipment maintenance and procurement, NAVSEA’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV), was tasked and funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense Innovative Readiness Training office to offer their technical salvage expertise with the Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit TWO (MDSU-2) as they raised the sub to the surface of the water.

“This represented a unique and rare training opportunity for our salvage engineers and Navy divers to gain valuable hands-on practice in a complex salvage operation involving a submarine,” said Michael S. Dean, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. “Getting that sort of training and practice is really invaluable to our personnel.”

Because technical documentation on sub’s weight, volume, stability and material condition is still classified, NAVSEA’s experts had to take into account the widest range of possible conditions when developing the salvage plan. In addition, Navy personnel gained invaluable experience on an array of complex and important salvage equipment and techniques.

In addition to providing Navy personnel hands-on experience, the salvage operation benefited the local community by unblocking the waterfront and improving access to Providence River. The Navy also experienced a significant return on investment. Salvage engineers and the divers alike can apply lessons learned to future salvage operations and are better prepared to plan and execute future salvage operations.