The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has issued a tender notice for the provision and support of Self-Contained Air Diving Equipment (SCADE), with a contract valued at up to £782,000.
The tender seeks to modernise the current open-circuit system used by military divers, improving surface demand capability and enhancing the core diving system.
According to the tender notice, “Self Contained Air Diving Equipment (SCADE) will be an improvement on our current in service capability.” The project will deliver approximately 600 modular self-contained compressed natural breathing air diving systems to support the defence sector’s diving demands, including training operations.
These systems are required to be usable in various environments, including the world’s oceans, harbours, and inland waterways, and must withstand all climatic conditions.
The new systems are designed to be rugged, lightweight, and compliant with UK safety standards.
They will also be rapidly configurable and have a minimal form to enhance the diver’s efficiency underwater. “The system design will also offer a permanent and contingent surface supply capability, as well as interoperability with in water alternate air supply connections and charging,” the MOD specified.
To ensure the systems remain effective throughout their service lifespan, they will be compatible with existing diver communication systems like the OTS MilCom 6000D and future telemetry monitoring systems.
The equipment will include buoyancy-controlled jackets, regulator assemblies, mask variants, air cylinders, gauge assemblies, tool and test kits, and transportation cases. “The systems will allow for coherent through-life upgrades,” the MOD noted, ensuring they meet evolving requirements.
The deadline for submission of tenders is 3 November 2024.
Apologies UKDJ for this is off topic.
Do you have a story being prepared on your Prime Minister and Home Office ceding sovereignty to the British Indian Ocean Territories?
The very location and timing makes this potentially the largest strategic blunder – I’m scratching my head to think of a folly so large in peacetime in previous history – that any nation could make.
For us in Australia, this territory sits half way between our liquid fuels, and us (Australia’s vulnerability to having liquid fuels cut off is dire – only 2 refineries left running in the country and perhaps 20 to 30 days reserve).
Power abhors a vacuum, and there are eager players who would love to expand influence into this area.
Additionally, it will undermine the sovereignty of all overseas British territories – and you have quite a few still, which are located down the length of the Atlantic, and circle Antarctica. Uncertainty expressed by UK Gov emboldened the Argentinian junta in the leadup to 1982, and such a high price in blood was paid.
Is the UK really this weak?
Most recently I see PM Starmer will face the Commons on this issue.
Yeah, one more strange subject censorship by UKDJ
Foreign Office. Opened a whole can of worms for no good reason. This country will regret this decision long after Labour have gone.
I spend a lot of my time trying to explain to folks why parts of the UK Defence industry is still excellent and defend it against knockers. That is primarily related to Ship and Submarine building and their associated supply chains.
I also happen to be fairly well qualified Open circuit Diver and it’s always amazed me that virtually no one ever mentions the UK Dive equipment industry and how it relates to Defence.
Our equipment hasn’t got any Sexy adverts or a posh Italian name, it tends to be reliable, long lasting, high performance and generally built “like a Brick S#17#@¥$€”.
In little clumps around these islands are companies that design, build and market a very high proportion of the Dive kit used by Navy’s and their SF around the world.
Most of these firms are probably unknown to you, but they are in Blackburn, Leeds, Bradford, Leicestershire, Wigan, Dartford, Portland and Helston.
A little story for Sunday, my wife wanted a new Drysuit so we went to a firm located in an old cotton mill in Yorkshire because it’s made to measure and she wanted it to be Grey and Purple.
It smelled of impact glue and the sound of dozens of ladies using industrial sowing machines was deafening. But once she was all measured up they used CAD design, computer controlled composite cutters (ex F1) to cut all the bits to produce her suit.
That little company was very busy and 90% of the suits they were making were in different camouflages, covered in Kevlar and complete with matching BCD dry equipment bags (Which was something I didn’t even know existed).
And if anyone wants to know why they want closed circuit kit it’s because it allows divers to go deep and stay down longer and it produces no bubbles it’s more commonly known as a “rebreather”.
It recirculates the exhaled breath, scrubs it of surplus CO2, analysis’s the results and adds oxygen so it can be rebreathed.
And it isn’t for me I am too old to go and relearn how to dive and it’s very expensive and complex to maintain and use. After 20 odd years of muscle memory I’m sticking to my twin 12l setup, pony tank and trusty Apeks regs (made in Blackburn).
Thanks for that Rod. A nice, informative, quality piece.
Nice post mate!
I had not heard of any of those companies, or knew of our big slice of the market.
I do keep track of our military dive capability though.
It’s all sort of an accident of History combined with some British engineering and enterprise. The U.K offshore Oil boom just happened at the right time, we needed a way to dive in deep and cold water and no one made much suitable. Meanwhile mills and small engineering businesses were going bust and we had some divers / inventors who decided they could make better kit than was in the market.
Check out the history of Apeks (Regulators), Fourth Element (environmental clothing) or AP Diving (BCD and Rebreathers) all started with a couple of bods in a shed.
Thanks mate. So we have you as the Diving SME too!😀
In my previous life I worked with a foreign Navy that used the UK provided CDLSE. A complex and massively specced peice of kit. You do get what you pay for though and per set foreign operators pay a lot. They also used a lot of UK supplied dive equipment such as suits, hand held sonar, open cycle sets, dive computers.
I Sports dive and am qual’d up to rescue diver. I cannot be bothered to go down the tech diver tree for mixed gas etc. Most of my kit is from the same sources they used for their CDs(It helps to know the reps!)
I’ve got some spare dive kit I’m trying to offload..😉
I’m not sure why this is not bought out of the MOD equivalent of petty cash. I suspect much of the kit is ‘off the shelf’ therefore the RRP is known it is merely the discount which needs to be negotiated.
I doubt the MOD will get much for less than £800k. 600 units for rebreather on air? I can see the logic, as rebreathers are normally a premix of nitrox for different depths adding 02 and scrubbing the CO2. Seems very cheap to me.
I know some is bought off the shelf or slightly modified. Apeks quite happily advertise that their hi spec (and price) regs are slightly de milled versions of the ones they build for US SF.
And no I haven’t bought a set, chromed brass do for me, though Titanium and ceramic does look really nice.
But a lot of the wearable such as suits etc are be spoke Taylor items, made to measure and different specs. Not everyone needs something light enough to drop out of a plane nor to carry weapons, electronics and explosives underwater but keep it all nice and dry.
Most suppliers have a specialist Mil Spec line. A lot of my kit came from Northern Diver.