Naval Support Activity Panama City
In 1975, NEDU relocated to its current location in Panama City, Florida.
NEDU tested and evaluated the replacement of Stillson's Mark V as the US Navy standard diving dress, the Mark 12 Surface Supplied Diving System, and eventually its replacement the Mark 21/ Superlight 17 in the 1970s and 1980s.
NEDU conducts at least one saturation dive per year. These dives were used, amongst other things, to evaluate decompression and recompression procedures, equipment, carbon dioxide absorbents, as well as active and passive thermal protection. Many of these tests included ongoing evaluations of commercially available diving equipment.
In 1998, the Naval Medical Research Center's diving biomedical and development group was transferred to NEDU.
In response to the overseas military needs, NEDU focused on warm water diving from 1999 to 2002. This guidance to the Naval Special Warfare community influences operational needs on an ongoing basis.
NEDU divers were essential to the recovery of artifacts from the ex-USS Monitor in 2001 and 2002.
In 2002, certification of the Mark 16 Mod 1 rebreather was completed following improvement of systems including, extension of the working limit to 300 feet (91 m), new decompression tables for both nitrogen-oxygen and helium-oxygen diving including new repetitive diving capabilities for helium-oxygen, test of an Emergency Breathing System with communications, the addition of an integrated buoyancy compensation device, and an improved full face mask.
In 2004, NEDU contributed to operational guidance for diving in harsh contaminated environments.
NEDU has continued research into oxygen toxicity utilizing the US Navy Mark 16 Mod 1.
Development of breathing systems, thermal protection, and decompression procedures for SEAL Delivery Vehicles and the Advanced SEAL Delivery System is ongoing.
In 2011, divers completed a 1,000 fsw saturation dive to evaluate the new Navy's Saturation Fly-Away Diving System (SAT FADS). The SAT FADS was designed in 2006 as a portable replacement of two decommissioned Pigeon-class submarine rescue vessels.
Evaluation and testing of new breathing apparatus and application of other technologies for diving is key to their mission.
Read more about this topic: United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit, History
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