Remote Recovery Systems
Authors: Kunz Herman S. 
Published: October 2008

INTRODUCTION:

In recent years the Navy has developed several very effective deep water remote recovery systems; however, the complexity and sophistication of these systems, coupled with their localized use has tended to shroud them in a sort of auora of mystery. It is the purpose of this brief article to explain the basic operational characteristics of these systems, to discuss some of the advantage and disadvantages of their use and hopefully to dispell some of the mystery.

BACKGROUND:

Although these systems are relatively new, remote recovery itself is very old; the history of marine salvage contains many reports of remote devices used in recovery of valuables lost at sea.

To some, the phrase "valuables lost at sea" may well bring forth thoughts of the money and jewels in the safe of the Andrea Doria or gold ingots in the coral encrusted hull of a Spanish galleon - rightly so; over the years millions of dollars worth of valuables have been recovered from the sea.

To the navy salvor the term "valuables lost at sea" means military hardware. It could be anything from an aircrafts flight recorder to a hydrogen bomb but it usually means a lost underwater weapon.

For many years torpedos have been the most commonly lost recoverable military hardware and the Navy torpedo ranges have employed large crews of divers for recovery work. During the 1950' s the depth capability of some types of torpedos was increased well beyond the depth limit of the deep sea diver. As new, deeper firing ranges were developed it became necessary to increase the depth capability of recovery.

During a torpedo development program the production of the prototype torpedos is extremely expensive, thus, the recovery of these units is justifiable for the value of the hardware itself. The most important reason for their recovery is the imperical knowledge gained by being able to disassemble a weapon and learn the reason for its malfunction.

BASIC SYSTEM:

What is a remote recovery system?

In a very broad sense of the term, recovery work performed by a manned submersible could be classed as a remote recovery, in that it is accomplished through the use of remotely controlled manipulators; however, for the purpose of this discussion a remote recovery system is one that does not employ men underwater but one that utilizes an umbilical between a surface support vessel and a remotely controlled underwater recovery device.

The most important component in all systems is the underwater television camera; around it the complete system is developed.

The televisions prime function is to identify the torpedo and observe the attachment of the recovery device. While the television offers a limited search capability, the success of the search and location depends on cooperative targets. An accoustic pinger is installed in the torpedo prior to firing; hydrophones are mounted on the underwater recovery carriage enabling the recovery crew to merely "home-in" on the pingers. All of the torpedo ranges are equipped with underwater tracking systems, thus, the general area and sometimes the exact location of the lost Unit is known.