SOCOM WATERCRAFT NEW SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNDERSEA, SURFACE VEHICLES ON THE HORIZON.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

On a deserted beach half a world away, Navy SEALs--elite commandos tasked with completing some of the United States' most sensitive military missions--silently emerge from the waves and approach their targets. Their mode of transport, an underwater vessel capable of being ferried by submarine, loiters in the sea awaiting their return.

Watercraft--both underwater and on the surface--provide special operators with a key technological advantage: the ability to quickly, efficiently and covertly conduct missions from the sea. While commandos as of late have become closely associated with conducting operations on land thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a command-wide pivot to great power competition will increase the need for these maritime systems as operators turn to the water, experts have said.

Special Operations Command is currently undergoing two major modernization efforts for its underwater systems--the shallow water combat submersible and the dry combat submersible. Both platforms are key to moving SEALs through oceans and seas.

Capt. Katherine Dolloff, program executive officer for maritime systems at the command, said SOCOM has over the past year taken delivery of the first two production systems for the shallow water combat submersible program which is meant to replace aging MK-8, Mod 1 SEAL delivery vehicles.

"The SWCS represents a significant improvement over the legacy... [system] in several areas," she told National Defense in an email. "SWCS brings increased payload and range, updated sensors, an improved navigation system and a modernized command-and-control architecture to permit the rapid integration of new technologies."

SEALs are transported "wet" with the system, requiring the use of protective suits. The vehicles can be transported via a dry dock shelter attached to a submarine.

The first two production platforms were used to conduct the program's initial operational evaluation, Dolloff said. Three more systems are in production with delivery of the next two scheduled later in fiscal year 2019 and the fifth following in early fiscal year 2020, she added. In total, Special Operations Command plans to purchase 10 shallow water combat submersible vehicles.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow focusing on naval issues at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, noted the platform is a one-for-one replacement of the legacy systems. Additionally, there have been a number of...