STIDD Systems Submersible Boats / Diver Propulsion Vehicles for Military and Special Operations Forces

STIDD Systems is an American company located in Greenport, New York that designs, develops, delivers, and supports high-performance submersible boats and diver propulsion vehicles for special operations forces (SOF).  STIDD offers SOF maritime end-users proven and reliable products that were designed and built for SOF applications.

STIDD’s customers include not only all US SOF combat diving units, but also over two dozen maritime units from around the world.  STIDD’s submersible boats and DPVs have been used in real world operations and have exceeded expectations during deployment.

Diver propulsion device (DPD)

The diver propulsion device (DPD) is a combat diving vehicle designed to transport two fully equipped combat divers and additional equipment on long range missions.  Optimized for military applications, the DPD is made of hard coat anodized marine-grade aluminum, has an operating depth of over 80m, is equipped with an advanced navigation system with a doppler velocity log (DVL) that ensures pin-point navigation to the objective, and has built in cargo carrying capacity. 

The DPD’s onboard lithium-ion battery was developed to give the DPD a better performing, more reliable, higher value, maintenance free power source.  Each battery consists of cells arranged in series parallel arrays, monitored by proprietary control, balancing and safety circuits.

The DPD is lightweight and can easily be launched or recovered by two people over the beach or over the side of a support craft.  The DPD ready-to-run, fits easily in a standard air drop bag for parachute deployment.

The DPD, after exhaustive testing and evaluation, is the only DPV available with the following military certifications: US navy-approved for navy use (ANU) listing, SOF carry-on authorization, and US navy 9310 authorization.

Multi-role combatant craft (MRCC)

The multi-role combatant craft (MRCC) is an innovative submersible boat that is capable of operation in four separate modes:

• Surface – craft operates in typical surface planning mode with diesel / waterjet propulsion
• Semi-submerged – craft operates partially submerged (bow-forward), using surface propulsion with reduced freeboard.  The only visible structure is the top-skin
• Submerged – craft submerges and operates underwater using electric propulsion
• Cache – craft sinks to the bottom: operators and crew egress craft, anchor to bottom, and conduct actions on the objective

The MRCC was designed and modified in support of SOF requirements and is currently the only hybrid submersible craft of its kind in full rate production.

The MRCC was developed in support of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) requirements and is currently the only surface planning wet submersible of its type in full rate production.

Diver navigation system

STIDD designed and developed the recon-navigation system (RNAV) to address SOF user’s requirements for submerged diver navigation. The RNAV transforms a standard DPD into the functional equivalent of a two-man one-quarter Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV) at a small fraction of the price and maintenance cost.

The RNAV can upload mission planning data from a laptop or download completed mission tracks to a laptop via its remote memory card reader. Mission planning data is displayed on a high-visibility moving map display and can be easily modified en-route through a gloved-hand pushbutton interface. The RNAV’s real-time position information, bottom contour tracking, leg and mission timers all assist in ensuring extremely accurate submerged navigation. The addition of a doppler velocity log (DVL) has made the STIDD RNAV the most capable, military grade diver propulsion vehicle (DPV) navigation system available.