| Sci-Tech Dictionary: underwater demolition |
(ordnance) Destruction or fragmentation of underwater obstacles by use of explosive charges placed by diver personnel; primarily employed as a short-range emergency measure to accomplish a military objective with promptness and economy of material.
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| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Underwater demolition |
The controlled use of explosives to achieve specific underwater work requiring cutting, fragmenting, perforating, or pounding.
In addition to wreck removal and channel widening and deepening uses, a wide range of commercial applications has been developed for underwater demolition. In the offshore oil and gas industries, charges may be placed and fired well below the ocean floor to open fissures in the rock, cut off steel pipe, open trenches, and remove old structures. The military uses underwater demolition to remove obstacles to amphibious assault.
Special charge shapes and sizes allow very precise work to be done with explosives. While charges for military purposes are usually placed by divers, explosives used commercially can also be placed by crewed submersibles or remote-operated vehicles. See also Diving; Explosive; Ship salvage.
| US Military Dictionary: underwater demolition |
The destruction or neutralization of underwater obstacles. This is normally accomplished by underwater demolition teams.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
| Military Dictionary: underwater demolition |
(DOD, NATO) The destruction or neutralization of underwater obstacles; this is normally accomplished by underwater demolition teams.
| Wikipedia: Underwater demolition |
Underwater demolition refers to the deliberate destruction or neutralization of man-made or natural underwater obstacles, both for military and civilian purposes.
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Shortly after the American Civil War, Brevet Maj. Gen. John G. Foster, a West Point trained engineer, became one of the first acknowledged experts in underwater demolition. In 1869, he wrote a definitive treatise on the topic and became widely recognized as the authority on underwater demolition. Many of his theories and techniques were still in practice during the Spanish-American War and World War I.
In 1940, Christian J. Lambertsen demonstrated his semi-closed circuit rebreather, the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU), for the U.S. Navy in connection with his proposal for the formation of military teams of underwater swimmers.[1][2]
Major Lambertsen served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1944 to 1946 where he did a detached service in underwater operations with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After joining OSS, he was vital in establishing the first cadres of U.S. military operational combat swimmers during late World War II.
His responsibilities included training and developing methods of combining self-contained diving and swimmer delivery for the OSS "Operational Swimmer Group".[3][4] Following World War II, he trained U.S. forces in methods for submerged operations, including composite fleet submarine / operational swimmers activity.[5]
In June 1943, Draper L. Kauffman organized the first U.S. Navy Demolition Teams. The original purpose of these teams was to map and record conditions in amphibious landing zones and to demolish obstacles in water which would prevent vehicles from landing during invasions.[6] Underwater demolition specialists may still be referred to as underwater demolition teams.
Research into diver safety related to underwater blast continues at the US Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory.[7]
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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 | Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Military Dictionary. US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Words, 2003. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Underwater demolition". Read more |
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