Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System. The Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS) is a modular system used by the United States Navy to raise sunken objects, such as aircraft or small vessels. It has a maximum lifting capacity of , and can recover objects from depths of .

Design
FADOSS is operated by Naval Sea Systems Command, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). It is designed to be airlifted to sites and installed on a "vessel of opportunity" as required for rapid deployment. Installation includes welding to the ship's deck to support the load, which requires approximately 24 hours.

The major components of FADOSS include:
 Ship Motion Compensator (SMC)
 Traction Winch
 Take-up Storage Reel
 Hydraulic power unit
 Air compressor
 Air control manifold

The SMC is the key component, as it uses a pressurized ram cylinder and sheaves to compensate for ship motions, limiting the variance in line tension.

The recovery line and storage reel are sized for the job, and are available in , , and  sizes. A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) is used to locate the item(s) to be salvaged and attach rigging for recovery. After the recovery line is lowered to the site, the ROV attaches the line to the rigging and FADOSS uses the traction winch to reel in the line, lifting the object to the surface.

Operations
Development of the SMC began with testing a ram tensioner in the early 1980s; the basic tensioner design had been used since the 1960s for underway replenishment operations, in which two ships moving next to each other transferred items by a horizontal line. By 1986, the system had been named FADOSS, capable of recovering items weighing up to  from depths of  using an aramid-fiber line. FADOSS systems are stationed in Williamsburg, Virginia and Port Hueneme, California.

 A CH-46E Sea Knight was recovered off the coast of Somalia in May 1993 using FADOSS, mounted on .
 FADOSS lifted a hydrothermal vent nicknamed Roane from the Main Endeavour Field of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in 1998.
 A F-16 Falcon was recovered from a depth of  near the coast of Japan using FADOSS in August 2012. Phoenix International Holdings was the contractor, operating from .
 A C-2A Greyhound that crashed in 2017 was recovered from the Philippine Sea in May 2019 by FADOSS, which was used because the estimated  depth exceeded the on-site recovery depth capability of the United States Seventh Fleet. At the time, it was the deepest aircraft recovery.
 Parts from the wreck of a Royal Canadian Air Force CH-148 Cyclone helicopter were recovered from the Mediterranean Sea using FADOSS in June 2020, operating from .
 In March 2021, FADOSS was used to recover a MH-60S Seahawk helicopter from a depth of  near Okinawa. The salvage set a record for deepest airframe recovered. ROV CURV-21 was used to set the line and rigging. For that recovery, the system was welded to the deck of .
 FADOSS was used to recover a F-35 Lightning from the South China Sea in March 2022. The jet was recovered from a depth of approximately ; FADOSS operated from .
 An F/A-18 Super Hornet that was blown off the deck of  during heavy weather was recovered by FADOSS from the Mediterranean Sea a month later in August 2022. The recovery depth was , using .

Notes

References

External links
 
 

United States Navy