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Sneak Peek – Dynamis Alliance Neptune Dive Blade

Sunday, May 24th, 2020

Dynamis Alliance has been evaluating their prototype Neptune Dive Blade with a goal of producing the single most versatile and useful dive blade in the world. It also has to be Made in USA.

They are looking at long term compatibility with their existing IWB/IWS sheath as well as Salt Water corrosion on the metal they have selected. The metal and hardening processes is the single biggest factor in price point so this is an area where it will be worth spending some extra time and research.

The mission continues…

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SCUBAPRO Sunday – Nova Series Lights

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

The SCUBAPRO Nova series of lights has long been a standard for recreational and professional divers around the world. SCUBAPRO has updated its range of underwater lights with the new Nova 850 and Nova 250 dive lights. All the lights in the series have been updated with new colors and features. All lights are available in a non-reflective matte black, blue accents aluminum body while still providing the same lightweight long-term durability.

The new Nova 250 is a versatile dive light that can be stored in the smallest BCD pocket or mounted on a helmet or the rail of a gun. It offers three modes: 100% power, 50% power, and Flash, it is also equipped with an over-pressure valve to release battery off-gassing, making it the safest small light on the market. Delivering 250 lumens of illumination, Double O-ring seals ensure watertight integrity. An extended light head shroud prevents the light beam from blinding other divers. They have over-pressure valve releases battery off-gassing – a safety feature not commonly found on dive lights of this size. A depth rating of 492ft/150m ensures worry-free lighting in virtually all diving conditions. It can be used with the Ops-Core single clamp. So, it can fit on any ACH Rail helmet.

The Nova 850 series replaces the previous 720 models, with an updated lumen rating and brighter beam. The lights are available as either the Nova 850, which uses 3 C-cell batteries or the more compact 850R, which uses a single rechargeable lithium-ion cell. Both models are also available in a ‘Wide’ version, The Nova 850 Wide delivers the same illumination and offers the same features as the Nova 850 but is equipped with a wider 80° beam. All the models are constructed from heavy-duty aluminum, and depth-rated of 492ft/150m ensures worry-free lighting in virtually all diving conditions.

The powerful Nova 2100 SF (Spot Flood) multi-use dive light offers both a 65° wide beam and a 15° spot beam to perfectly match different diving situations. Five light modes plus an emergency signal mode provide lots of versatility, with one-button control for easy operation. Extremely reliable, the waterproof battery compartment is isolated, so even if the O-ring seal fails, water cannot reach the internal electronics. The Nova 2100 SF comes as a set with both a large and a small a Goodman handle, plus a pistol grip handle and a GoPro adapter.

Dual beams include a powerful 2100 lumen 65° wide beam and 800 lumens 15° spot beam. Wide beam features 6 Cree XM-L2 LEDs; the spot beam features 1 Cree XPL LED. Five primary light modes: 100% Flood, 50% Flood, 100% Spot, 50% Flood + 75% Spot, and 25% Flood + 50% Spot. Hidden emergency signal mode offers a one-second blink interval or an SOS Morse code. Just push and hold the power button for four seconds to activate. Simple one-button control lets you power on and off, adjust brightness, and switch beam angle. It provides 55 minutes of burn time at full power and constant brightness. The light is depth tested to 328′ (100 meters). Corrosion-proof metal light head improves heat dispersion and increases durability.

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SCUBAPRO Sunday – Galileo HUD Wins SCUBALab Innovation Award

Sunday, May 10th, 2020

https://www.scubadiving.com/scubapro-galileo-hud-scubalab-innovation-award-winner

For full details on the Galileo HUD, visit https://www.scubadiving.com/galileo-hud-dive-computer

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MCSC, ONR and CD&I Collaborating to Inform ARV Path Forward

Friday, May 8th, 2020

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. —

Marine Corps Systems Command is working toward the next phase of replacing the legacy Light Armored Vehicle with a modern Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle.

Armored Reconnaissance was the subject of a Capability Based Assessment, the results of which were summarized in a 2019 Joint Requirements Oversight Council-validated Initial Capabilities Document produced by the Marine Corps’ Combat Development and Integration. The CBA pitted Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions against a peer threat, and identified shortfalls and gaps in capability.

CD&I emphasized the need for a modern, purpose-built ARV. As the core-manned, next-generation system, ARV must possess transformational capabilities to enable LAR Battalions to gain contact with and collect on peer-threat forces. It must accomplish this goal without becoming decisively engaged, while also successfully waging the counter-reconnaissance fight.

After the analysis and various other supporting activities, the ARV concept emerged as a transformational required capability. The characteristics differentiating the ARV from current systems include the incorporation of a battle management system, enhanced vision technologies for increased situational awareness, and target tracking and engagement capabilities.

The Program Manager for Light Armored Vehicles is pursuing this capability to support LAR Battalions, provide them with additional capabilities and set the conditions to transform the way they fight.

“Any ARV path forward will continue to be informed by the ongoing [Office of Naval Research] Technology Demonstrator effort, the ARV Analysis of Alternatives, Phase III Force Design outputs, additional Government [Requests for Information], senior leadership direction and industry feedback,” said John “Steve” Myers, Program Manager for MCSC’s LAV portfolio.

A collaborative effort

In the early planning stages, the Marine Corps envisioned the ARV as a replacement combat vehicle for the LAV. Over time, officials began to view the ARV as a vehicle platform equipped with a suite of advanced reconnaissance capabilities, with an open system architecture that can sense, shoot, move, communicate and remain transportable as part of the Naval Expeditionary Force.

PM LAV is leading the acquisition planning effort to help realize this next-generation reconnaissance vehicle. The portfolio is collaborating with ONR and the Capabilities Development Directorate of Headquarters Marine Corps, CD&I.

Capitalizing on their Detroit Arsenal location, PM LAV is working with Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center to update the ARV concept as a tool to analyze impacts of capability changes. Recognizing commonalities exist among the ARV and the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps are working together to ensure collaboration for those capability gaps.

ONR is conducting research on advanced technologies to inform requirements, technology readiness assessments and competitive prototyping efforts for the ARV.

In 2019, ONR selected two vendors to design, fabricate and test full-scale technology demonstration platforms. Both platforms are expected to be ready for government evaluation in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020.

Through ONR’s efforts, the Ground Combat Element Division of CDD has been refining a set of requirements for the ARV to meet the future reconnaissance mission of the Marine Corps. PM LAV will leverage this information in a performance specification to be released to industry partners to build the ARV.

The collaboration between PM LAV, ONR and CD&I is crucial to the success of the ARV.

“Effective collaboration between the materiel developer, technologist and combat developer is essential to achieving the next-generation capabilities required to transform legacy armored reconnaissance into a modern, combat credible force,” said Kurt Koch, GCE Division, CDD.

Koch noted how the strong partnerships forged over the last three years set the conditions to develop the core of a next-generation, combat vehicle system—mobile on land and water—to serve as a manned hub coordinating the actions of unmanned ground and aerial robotic sensor, and weapon systems.

The path forward

PM LAV has taken several steps to ensure the success of the ARV.

In 2019, PM LAV released a Request for Information to industry comprising a set of attributes for a transformational vehicle. Based on responses to the RFI, the program office met with several vendors interested in becoming a prime vendor for ARV.

PM LAV originally planned to hold an industry day in May 2020 for the Competitive Prototyping Phase. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused the event to be rescheduled to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020.

“We still want to hold an industry day so we can have an open discussion with industry, provide more clarification and answer any questions from our industry partners,” said Maryann Lawson, MCSC’s project lead for ARV.

In addition to industry engagements, the evaluation of Science and Technology efforts as well as ongoing CDD and performance specification refinement should yield the information necessary to move into the Competitive Prototyping phase.

“PM LAV will focus efforts targeted on industry RFIs and strategic small group engagements,” said Myers.

The Marine Corps plans to use the Ground Vehicle Systems Other Transaction Agreement with the National Advanced Mobility Consortium to release a draft request for prototype proposal, or RPP, for the ARV base variant in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020.

The government is interested in industry feedback and collaboration to shape the requirement and statement of work for the final RPP release in spring 2021. Industry partners are encouraged to periodically check beta.sam.gov and engage with the NAMC for future RFIs and program updates.

Story by Matt Gonzales, MCSC Office of Public Affairs and Communication | 10th Marine Regiment

Photo by photo by Cpl. Corey A. Mathews

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SCUBAPRO Go Sport Fins Win SCUBALab Testers Choice Award

Wednesday, May 6th, 2020

SCUBAPRO’s Go Sport Fins have won SCUBALab’s Testers Choice Award.

The GO Sport fin features a “boot-fit” design, and features a self-adjusting bungee heel strap. Additionally, the fun provides mounting points to attach skegs that minimize sideslip and maximize stability.

Available in black, blue, turquoise, white and yellow.

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SCUBAPRO Sunday – The Battle of the Coral Sea May 4-8, 1942

Sunday, May 3rd, 2020

The Battle of the Coral Sea is known for being the first Naval battle where the two opposing forces never met. It was the birth of the aircraft carrier. No surface ships sank another ship in this battle. It was also one of the allies’ first victories in the war in the Pacific. It did come at a hefty price for the Allies, at a loss of 1 aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington CV-2, 1 Destroyer USS Sims DD-409, 1 oiler USS Neosho AO-23, 69 aircraft and 656 people killed, the USS Yorktown was also significantly damaged. The Lexington was so severely damaged that the U.S. sank it with torpedo’s the day after the battle. The Japanese lost 1 Light strike carrier (Jeep Carrier), 1 destroyer, 3 small warships, 97 aircraft, and 966 people killed.

My Stepfather was on the Lexington during this battle. He was in a boiler room when a Japanese torpedo hit it. After he abandoned the Lady Lex, he spent the next month and a half making his way back to San Diego before he could get new clothes and a new sea bag. Like every good sailor, he went out and got drunk, losing his seabag and being arrested by shore patrol. He ended up in the brig and had to rent a seabag so he could get out because, if you didn’t have a full seabag, you had to stay in jail. He was one of the most significant people in my life and one of the biggest reasons I joined the Navy. He had great pride in being in the Navy and joined in 1939. He had left Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941, so they could bring planes to Midway. He was supposed to get out in early 1942.

The allies learned of the intended plan of the Japanese to seize Port Moresby in New Guinea. The Japanese wanted to take control of the Coral Sea and use it as a staging base to invade Australia. When the Japanese landed at Tulagi on May 3, carrier-based U.S. planes from a Task Force 17 struck the landing group, sinking one destroyer and some minesweepers and landing barges. Most of the naval units covering the main Japanese invasion force that left Rabaul, New Britain, for Port Moresby on May 4 took a route to the east, where they clash with TF17.

On May 5 and 6, 1942, opposing carrier groups sought each other, and on the morning of May 7, Japanese carrier-based planes sank a U.S. destroyer and an oiler. Allied planes sank the light carrier Shoho and a cruiser. The next day Japanese aircraft crippled the U.S. carrier Lexington and damaged the carrier Yorktown. U.S. planes crippled the sizeable Japanese carrier Shokaku so bad that it had to retreat away from the battle. So many Japanese planes were lost that the Port Moresby invasion force, without adequate air cover and harassed by Allied land-based bombers, turned back to Rabaul. The four-day engagement was a strategic victory for the Allies. The battle, which U.S. Adm Ernest J. King described as “the first major engagement in naval history in which surface ships did not exchange a single shot,” foreshadowed the kind of carrier warfare that marked later fighting in the Pacific War.

Video

A little over two years ago, the USS Lexington was found at the bottom of the Coral Sea, and she was seen for the first time since she was lost so long ago. God bless all the sailors and airman who are still interned in her and never had a chance to be someone’s Stepfather or live their lives.

news.usni.org/2018/03/05/video-billionaire-paul-allen-finds-lost-world-war-ii-carrier-uss-lexington

Posted in Advertiser, Guest Post, History, Maritime | 6 Comments »

SCUBAPRO Sunday – Beards

Sunday, April 12th, 2020

One of the hardest or easiest things to do is dive with a beard or a mustache. I say it that way because, like most things, if you practice doing it, you will get better. There are a few things you can do that are going to help when diving with facial hair. I am going to cover some of the gear and other tricks and also repost a video that I found, and I think they are good.

First, you need to have the right mask. Depending on the size of your face and facial hair will help determine the mask you need. But honestly, you should still be able to use the same mask you always have unless you have gone full bigfoot. Here are a few of the better masks out there for dive with hair.

I have tried to pick low volume masks that are good for combat swimmer operations.

The SCUBAPRO Synergy 2 Mask is excellent for people with beards because of its unique two-skirt system. The flexible skirts fit tightly against your face, with the outer skirt providing additional support and rigidity. Combined, they provide superior comfort and resistance to leaking compared to other masks. When people are diving, and their mask starts to leak, the first thing you try and do to fix it is to pull it tighter, and if that doesn’t work you pull it tighter again, if this isn’t working, you do it again. If no matter what you do, your mask keeps leaking, try losing it up a little, when it is tight the mask will get ripples, like if you were to put a rubber band over your shirt sleeve. The Synergy 2 mask is suitable for people with a smaller face. If you have a beard or mustache and want a solid mask, you can’t go wrong with this one.

If you are looking for a mask that is good for beards and mustaches, the SCUBAPRO Solo is a good fit. The double-sealed silicone skirt conforms to almost every face, giving you an excellent leak-free seal. The SCUBAPRO Solo features a frameless, single tempered glass lens that is specifically designed to provide a wide field of view. Because of how close it sits to your face, the Solo has a low volume fit and easy clearing. Other notable features include a wide-split style, non-slip strap with adjustable buckles, a silicone skirt that comes with double-feathered edge sealing that is effective even against facial hair, and a nose-pocket that allows you to pinch your nose to clear.

The SCUBAPRO Crystal Vu Plus is a single lens mask, which some people like because it can provide a more precise, unobstructed view underwater. It comes with a purge valve, and this makes it easy to clear and rarely fogs up. Should water enter the mask because the mask didn’t seal properly around your beard or mustache, exhale air through your nose to clear the water. You can breathe out through your nose, and the water is vented out. The purge valve can fit a little tight for some people, but most people love this mask once they try it.

Another feature of this mask is the side viewing windows, which provide excellent peripheral vision in the water. It has an excellent seal that should allow it to fit snug and tight on about 90% of people, even with facial hair.

In the video, Richie Denmark talks about using a razor to help trim a little bit of your facial hair away. I just wanted to point out the Schick Silk Touch-up multipurpose exfoliation tool. It is excellent for fine-tuning your hair.

Richie, Thank you for letting me post your video.

There are a lot of good masks out there besides the ones I mentioned. Atomic makes some really good high-end masks. Like everything you do, you need to make sure you practice. Even if it’s just getting in the pool a couple of times, it is easy to say it is the gear’s fault that you can do something. Lastly, remember if you are diving a rebreather and you are going to put something on your mustache to help it seal, do not use petroleum produces.

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MATBOCK Monday: MR Dry 2.0

Monday, April 6th, 2020

With Spring upon us you know what they say “April showers bring May Flowers.” This means wet and potentially damaged gear if you aren’t prepared. Don’t worry, we got your back. Literally, with the MR. DRY 2.0.

Whether you’re conducting water or land operations, the MR. Dry 2.0 is the perfect solution. Utilizing the Mystery Ranch NICE frame as the backbone (or any other external frame), the MR. Dry 2.0 offers unmatched versatility for everything from 3-day packs to expedition packs. With 3 different sizes and 3 different color options, it fully waterproofs your entire pack line and even incorporates an oral inflation valve for buoyancy control.

If the mission requires it, take the outer waterproof shells off and attach the Mystery Ranch NICE frame directly to the internal pack. The beauty of this seamless integration is that finally your internal pack can stay configured exactly the same way for any mission.