"That is the goal," Capt. Mike Linn said when asked about the Navy’s view of teaming UUVs with SDVs.
The Navy’s vision: extend reach and reduce risk
Capt. Mike Linn, who works within the Naval Special Warfare program office (PMS 340) under the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC), described a clear operational aim: pair uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) with swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs) so special operators can extend reach and reduce exposure. Linn told Howard Altman on the sidelines of the annual SOF Week conference that UUVs could be used to scout, probe choke points such as harbor mouths, and perform tasks that would make a manned SDV’s passage safer and more capable.
The platforms: Mk 11 SWCS and the larger Dry Combat Submersible
The current SDV workhorse is the Mk 11, also called the Shallow Water Combat Submersible (SWCS). The Mk 11 is just under 22½ feet long, operated by a crew of two and able to carry six passengers. It is a "wet" submersible design, meaning occupants are exposed to water during transit, and it can be launched and recovered from submerged submarines using Dry Deck Shelters (DDS).
The Navy has also acquired several Dry Combat Submersibles (DCS) in recent years. DCS models feature a pressurized cabin for two crew and eight passengers, can operate at greater depths than the SWCS, and deliver occupants dry and relatively warm—reducing fatigue and some health risks. The DCS does not fit inside existing DDSs and therefore is understood, at least publicly, to require surface mothership support for launch and recovery.
UUV inventory and launch/recovery challenges
The Navy fields multiple torpedo-shaped UUV designs intended for deployment from surface vessels or submarines. Historically, retrieval of UUVs underwater has often been a manual process that used DDS and divers. In recent years, the service has been working to expand its ability to launch and recover UUVs from submerged submarines without diver intervention. Linn confirmed that testing is underway to explore submerged launch-and-recovery techniques and to investigate where uncrewed companions would be deployed from in a teamed mission.
Whether an SDV would carry its UUV companions to a launch point or whether the UUVs would be launched from another platform remains an open engineering question. Linn noted practical constraints such as the limited internal volume of SDVs and the alternative of mounting UUVs externally: "You’ve got to consider your volume in the SDV, which is not great," he said. "Are you going to strap it to the outside?"
Communications and data-transfer: “deaf, dumb, and blind”
Linn was candid about the technical barriers that must be solved before dependable crewed-uncrewed teaming is operational. He described both crewed SDVs and UUVs as effectively "deaf, dumb, and blind" in their current ability to coordinate. Through-water data transfer is difficult; choices about modalities must balance bandwidth and survivability. Linn said the Navy is evaluating acoustic and light-based data transfers among other methods, and emphasized the need for synchronized systems so that data — the "ones and zeros" — arrives at the right time and place while remaining survivable in contested environments.
Those communications limits directly affect mission concepts. A primary mission set for UUVs is scouting ahead for mines and hazards and otherwise improving commanders’ situational awareness above and below the waves. Doing that reliably and covertly, in concert with SEAL delivery vehicles, requires solutions to both physical carriage and secure, timely data exchange.
How Naval Special Warfare, NSWC PCD, and SEAL operators will respond
- Naval Special Warfare program office (PMS 340): will continue systems-level requirements and integration work aimed at synchronized crewed-uncrewed systems, focusing on survivability and interoperability.
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD): has been leading testing efforts and will likely remain the technical testbed for submerged launch/recovery and through-water data-transfer experiments.
- SEAL operators and SDV crews: will need new operational doctrine and handling procedures if UUVs are carried aboard SDVs or launched from nearby platforms; the DCS’s need for surface mothership support and the Mk 11’s internal volume constraints factor directly into operator planning.
Capt. Linn said the Navy is still "years away from having something at the reliability level that they want." Testing is ongoing, led in part by NSWC PCD, but significant engineering and operational hurdles remain: where to store and launch UUVs relative to SDVs, how to transfer data through water in contested environments, and how to synchronize systems so unmanned and manned platforms arrive at the right place at the right time. The promise is tangible—reduced risk, extended reach and new scouting capabilities—but the path to reliable crewed-uncrewed teaming beneath the waves will require steady work on the hard problems of carriage, communication, and survivability.
