Horsea Island Portsmouth

'The Defence Diving School is the UKs centre of excellence for providing military diving training.'

The Defence Diving School (DDS) is a Joint Service Training Establishment. Its primary purpose is to provide military diving training for both Royal Navy and Army personnel resulting in Royal Navy Clearance Divers and Army Divers.

All basic training is conducted at Horsea Island. The facilities are first class and include a 1000m (1km) salt water lake, a 5m diving tank, recompression chambers, surface and underwater engineering facilities, classrooms, conference rooms, catering facilities and a specialist diving clothing store. In addition, the School possesses 4 diving tenders (boats) based at Whale Island for work in the Harbour and the Solent. Advanced diver training is conducted at Weymouth, Falmouth, Plymouth and the West Coast of Scotland.

Diver Selection
Prior to commencing diving training all personnel attend a five day selection course.

This involves taking the Diving Physical Fitness Test; which consists of a one and half mile run as a squad with the Physical Training Instructor, followed immediately by a one and half mile run individual effort, which is also timed. All this is closely followed by a gymnasium test to assess overall body strength.

Diving assessments take place for the remainder of the week, to ensure that the student is comfortable underwater, and has the potential to complete an arduous diving course.

RN Clearance Diver Training
Royal Navy Clearance Divers are trained initially for a total of 18 weeks. Mainly trained at the DDS they are also taken to Portland and Scotland for specialist search techniques and deepwater diving.

Clearance divers are trained in all aspects of diving theory and air, mixed gases and surface demand breathing apparatus. They work on small mine hunting vessels as part of a diving team searching for and destroying enemy sea mines.   Specialist shore diving teams are also involved in clearance of areas of surf in preparation for amphibious operations.  All of these operations pull together to provide Littoral Maritime Manoeuvre.  Divers, Mine hunters and survey vessels ensure important shipping lanes are kept clear during times of conflict. Divers are also trained to use current tools and equipment available to the Royal Navy today.  This gives them an underpinning knowledge on the equipment and procedures necessary to make them a valuable asset to an operational dive team ashore or afloat.

Able Seaman Diver 2
18 Week course trains a student with no diving experience. Course consists of the following:

Basic Scuba air diving to 30m
Mixed Gas re-breather diving at present to 42m in the future this will be 60m
Specialist Underwater Search Training
Fast Clearance Diving Operations
Basic training in underwater demolitions and Explosive Ordnance disposal
Diver First Aid training
Inflatable Boat driving course

Leading Diver Course
The next progression is to Able Seaman Diver 1 then after further leadership training onto Leading Seaman Diver.  This is seen as the professional diver in the RN and will be qualified to supervise surface demand to 50m on air.

The Petty Officer Diver Course
This is the final course that the diver will do and qualifies to supervise all service recompression chambers, air to 50m and mixed gas to 42m (to be increased in the future to 60m).  He will then carry out an intensive Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) course to qualify him as a Joint Service Bomb and Mine Disposal expert.

Royal Navy Officers can also qualify as Minewarfare Clearance Diving Officer (MCDO).  It consists of a 22 week course where they are qualified to dive and supervise all general service diving equipment; also completing  the same intensive EOD course as the Petty Officer Diver.  He will then go on to do a Minewarfare Course where he learns to use a complex sonar system on small ships to detect mines.  All in all this training can take over a year.

Army Diver

Being a Joint Service-training establishment DDS also trains Army divers to three levels of competence:

1. Army Diver Class 2 is the basic course which lasts 5 weeksand covers such topics as:

Fast & Open water searches
Basic underwater engineering including demolitions
Underwater search schemes
Deep diving phase (to 30m)

On completion divers return to their units with a good basic knowledge,  which can be developed with experience at their unit dive teams.

2.  Army Diver Class 1 course which includes surface demand breathing apparatus, and covers:

Use of hydraulic tools
Underwater engineering including concreting
Oxygen cutting
Deep diving to 50m including decompression diving

3. Army Diving Supervisors course which trains students to plan and supervise the following types of diving operation:

Air diving to 50m on open circuit and surface demand equipment
Fast water
Decompression diving
Underwater engineering
Outside agency tasking
It also introduces the student to Dive team management

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