MSubs ltd
Initially msubs.com was just a convenient email address whilst we were trading as Marlin Engineering. MSubs Ltd was incorporated in July 2006 with the purpose of building the S201, a 2-man submersible for an American client. At that time, MSubs Ltd was 100% owned by my wife Gill and I as an asset-less accounting entity. This would normally have been liquidated upon the completion of the project and settling accounts in July 2007. However the client, pleased with how the S201 project had gone, wished to keep it open and put money in to build more submarines. I retained a 25% share and my position as managing director and principal engineer until I sold my interest and left in Dec 2012. Marlin Engineering, later Steel Fish Ltd, continued in parallel during this time renting out the production equipment to MSubs ltd. Part of the sale agreement was for me to trade under a different name in the future hence the change-over from Marlin to Steel Fish Ltd, which had been incorporated a year after MSubs in 2007.
S201 2006
photo courtesy of Gill Moorhouse
This project for an American client was commenced by Marlin Engineering in 2005 and then completed as MSubs ltd in 2007. A high speed 2 man vehicle powered by a lithium battery as part of a US government requirement.
Like Alicia, the steel hull was made by Metalcraft in Cambridgeshire. The GRP shell was made mostly by Polypressions. The vehicle was built in around a year by a team of 6 engineers.
After the contract with the US government was complete the vehicle was brought back to the UK and as far as I am aware is still in storage.
Like Alicia, the steel hull was made by Metalcraft in Cambridgeshire. The GRP shell was made mostly by Polypressions. The vehicle was built in around a year by a team of 6 engineers.
After the contract with the US government was complete the vehicle was brought back to the UK and as far as I am aware is still in storage.
S301 2009
The conventional method of delivering special forces covertly to the seashore uses a swimmer delivery vehicle which is fully flooded and requires all to wear diving equipment. This can be an extremely arduous experience, especially in cold water. They are delivered as near as possible using a nuclear submarine fitted with a dry deck shelter (DDS). This is around 2.5m diameter and has a floodable compartment around 7m long sealed off by a full diameter hydraulically operated door. The current UK version is slightly larger than the US version which was designed by Electric Boat in the 60’s. For current (2020) US and UK special forces these are US designed MK8 SDVs built in Panama City in Florida, now rather long in the tooth. They are powered by silver zinc batteries which are eye-wateringly expensive and have a useful life of around 3-5 cycles. In the real world they have been technically surpassed by the lithium battery some time ago.
At the start of a mission, the special forces pass up from the nuclear submarine into the chamber which is at this point completely dry. The vehicle is parked slightly to one side for access. After boarding, the chamber operator floods the chamber and the door is opened with the sub hovering at around 20m. The SDV reverses out and sets off towards the target. The maximum range is a kind of a secret but at the same time obfuscated by exaggerated claims of past users. The practical reality is that the round trip should be about 50 miles or less. Upon arrival the vehicle is parked, switched off, on the sea bed where it remains for the duration of the mission.
It has long been a desire to make this journey in the comparative comfort of a dry vehicle kept at normal atmospheric pressure. Northrop Grumman were given the task of designing a dry vehicle that would take 6 swimmers and fit into a current DDS. The report they eventually delivered concluded it was not possible. I was given the task to take a second look to see if it was actually possible. The result was S301 which carries 6 swimmers, and 2 crew and fits in an American DDS with minor mods to internal equipment. It has been reported that the total cost of the fully operating S301 was less than the cost of the Northrop Grumman study which said it was not possible.
The success of S301 has completely changed the US special forces strategy regarding swimmer delivery.
As can be deduced from the pictures, there is a forward compartment for the pilot and co-pilot, entered through the opening and fold back of the bow viewport, then a pressure bulkhead with a hatch leading to the lock-out compartment containing reasonably comfortable seating for 6 swimmers. The swimmers exit from an aft hatch pointing down at 45 degrees. The exit trunk keeps the water below floor level.
This very light inward opening lockout hatch was designed by John Ramsay and I one evening on a few pieces of A4 over warm English beer in the Royal Oak, Meavy, Devon. Although I say it myself, it is quite inspired and is now the standard pattern for all two-way hatches at MSubs as can be seen on their website.
The batteries are external and were to be the same lithium units used on the Northrop Grumman Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS). S301 would use 4, ASDS had 14. The prototype was initially fitted with lead acid and then commercial lithium Iron Phosphate as used in a Segway. The pods were therefore the same ID and length as the ASDS pods.
Main propulsion was by a pair of standard 15 kW oil filled brushless DC motors, from Fischer Panda in Germany, specially adapted for this service. These low speed direct drive units are extremely efficient and I have used them now on all JFD rescue subs since 2012 and the Triton DV24 Tourist sub currently being built in Barcelona (2019)
Although the customer said at the start that classification was not required, I have been here before. So, just in case, we built and tested the hull as if it was being built under survey with all the 3rd party QA documentation. When the boat as launched and it turned out classification would be required, it was not an impossible task to gain post-build approval through DNV-GL.
S301 was completed in 2008 and was sent first to Virginia Beach then to Pear Harbour, Oahu, home of the ASDS. However, ASDS had just burnt to a crisp due to a battery fire during charging. This was in the early days of battery management with the exciting but powerful lithium cobalt chemistry. This disaster, while bad for the ASDS project was greatly to the advantage of MSubs. S301 was the only dry swimmer delivery vehicle in town and therefore received far more attention than it might have. Fortunately the boat behaved itself perfectly and we were able to continue development in extremely agreeable surroundings.
In partnership with Lockheed Martin the sub was further developed in West Palm Beach with lithium batteries and a long streamlined tail. At this point the US special forces were now very interested indeed in the prospect of a compact dry swimmer delivery vehicle.
At the start of a mission, the special forces pass up from the nuclear submarine into the chamber which is at this point completely dry. The vehicle is parked slightly to one side for access. After boarding, the chamber operator floods the chamber and the door is opened with the sub hovering at around 20m. The SDV reverses out and sets off towards the target. The maximum range is a kind of a secret but at the same time obfuscated by exaggerated claims of past users. The practical reality is that the round trip should be about 50 miles or less. Upon arrival the vehicle is parked, switched off, on the sea bed where it remains for the duration of the mission.
It has long been a desire to make this journey in the comparative comfort of a dry vehicle kept at normal atmospheric pressure. Northrop Grumman were given the task of designing a dry vehicle that would take 6 swimmers and fit into a current DDS. The report they eventually delivered concluded it was not possible. I was given the task to take a second look to see if it was actually possible. The result was S301 which carries 6 swimmers, and 2 crew and fits in an American DDS with minor mods to internal equipment. It has been reported that the total cost of the fully operating S301 was less than the cost of the Northrop Grumman study which said it was not possible.
The success of S301 has completely changed the US special forces strategy regarding swimmer delivery.
As can be deduced from the pictures, there is a forward compartment for the pilot and co-pilot, entered through the opening and fold back of the bow viewport, then a pressure bulkhead with a hatch leading to the lock-out compartment containing reasonably comfortable seating for 6 swimmers. The swimmers exit from an aft hatch pointing down at 45 degrees. The exit trunk keeps the water below floor level.
This very light inward opening lockout hatch was designed by John Ramsay and I one evening on a few pieces of A4 over warm English beer in the Royal Oak, Meavy, Devon. Although I say it myself, it is quite inspired and is now the standard pattern for all two-way hatches at MSubs as can be seen on their website.
The batteries are external and were to be the same lithium units used on the Northrop Grumman Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS). S301 would use 4, ASDS had 14. The prototype was initially fitted with lead acid and then commercial lithium Iron Phosphate as used in a Segway. The pods were therefore the same ID and length as the ASDS pods.
Main propulsion was by a pair of standard 15 kW oil filled brushless DC motors, from Fischer Panda in Germany, specially adapted for this service. These low speed direct drive units are extremely efficient and I have used them now on all JFD rescue subs since 2012 and the Triton DV24 Tourist sub currently being built in Barcelona (2019)
Although the customer said at the start that classification was not required, I have been here before. So, just in case, we built and tested the hull as if it was being built under survey with all the 3rd party QA documentation. When the boat as launched and it turned out classification would be required, it was not an impossible task to gain post-build approval through DNV-GL.
S301 was completed in 2008 and was sent first to Virginia Beach then to Pear Harbour, Oahu, home of the ASDS. However, ASDS had just burnt to a crisp due to a battery fire during charging. This was in the early days of battery management with the exciting but powerful lithium cobalt chemistry. This disaster, while bad for the ASDS project was greatly to the advantage of MSubs. S301 was the only dry swimmer delivery vehicle in town and therefore received far more attention than it might have. Fortunately the boat behaved itself perfectly and we were able to continue development in extremely agreeable surroundings.
In partnership with Lockheed Martin the sub was further developed in West Palm Beach with lithium batteries and a long streamlined tail. At this point the US special forces were now very interested indeed in the prospect of a compact dry swimmer delivery vehicle.
2010 MSubs MASTT 70,000kg autonomous unmanned vehicle
.The US Navy perceived a growing threat from small navies armed with small but very capable submarines. In particular the Iranians had developed a small 120 tonne diesel electric boat that carried two full sized heavyweight torpedoes. This has the capability of sinking a US carrier and are very difficult to track. The US Navy, in 2008 had no real program in place to develop equipment to track such a small submarine. Following the success of the S301 project we were invited to bid to build a large unmanned vehicle which would be acoustically similar to a small diesel-electric attack submarine. Our bid was within the very small budget, pocket change for the US military, so was accepted. The entire vehicle was designed and built in around 13 months, which included a purpose-built factory, designed in my spare moments.
I had exactly the right personnel available at the time and due to modular construction techniques and flawless project planning it was completed on time. In particular the complex computer controlled electrical system was completely built and tested before the hull arrived.
The main design constraint is that it had to fit in several high cube containers. This put a limit of the diameter of the hull which was split in two sections an loaded into two containers. A third container took the batteries and the conning tower.
Each hull half had an 8 tonne lead acid battery amounting to 500kW hrs. The main propulsion motor was a standard off the shelf 6 pole 3 phase motor running at 950 rpm. A belt drive reduced this to 350 rpm at the prop. Although the mission is run at around 4 kn, the top speed recorded was 9.8 kn.
Testing took place at the US navy’s large model test facility in Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. The navigation was automated and the sub ran a pre-programmed path in 3D, surfacing every now and then to assure the operators that all was well.
This was the final project I ran to completion a MSubs as the MD and Principal Engineer. I am pleased to say that all those I considered key people are now independent contractors and I have had the pleasure of working with them in projects ever since.
I had exactly the right personnel available at the time and due to modular construction techniques and flawless project planning it was completed on time. In particular the complex computer controlled electrical system was completely built and tested before the hull arrived.
The main design constraint is that it had to fit in several high cube containers. This put a limit of the diameter of the hull which was split in two sections an loaded into two containers. A third container took the batteries and the conning tower.
Each hull half had an 8 tonne lead acid battery amounting to 500kW hrs. The main propulsion motor was a standard off the shelf 6 pole 3 phase motor running at 950 rpm. A belt drive reduced this to 350 rpm at the prop. Although the mission is run at around 4 kn, the top speed recorded was 9.8 kn.
Testing took place at the US navy’s large model test facility in Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. The navigation was automated and the sub ran a pre-programmed path in 3D, surfacing every now and then to assure the operators that all was well.
This was the final project I ran to completion a MSubs as the MD and Principal Engineer. I am pleased to say that all those I considered key people are now independent contractors and I have had the pleasure of working with them in projects ever since.