Undersea Medicine & Performance

The aim of Undersea Medicine & Performance is to develop improved methods, models, treatments and devices for understanding, preventing or mitigating factors that negatively impact divers and submariners. Solutions should extend warfighting capability during undersea operations to maximize freedom of action and warfighter dominance.

Research Concentration Areas

• Mitigation of decompression illnesses (DCI)
• Mitigation of hyperbaric oxygen toxicity
• Diver performance optimization
• Technology development for manned undersea operations

Research Challenges and Opportunities

• Basic research to understand the pathology and etiology of decompression illnesses (DCI, i.e., decompression sickness and arterial/venous gas embolism), hyperbaric oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, and/or high-pressure nervous syndrome
• Basic research to understand the cognitive impacts and individual responses of the various exposures in the undersea environment
• Applied research investigating the efficacy of nonrecompressive prevention and treatment of DCI
• Applied research investigating prophylactic counter-measures for oxygen toxicity
• Development of technologies that enable safe submarine escape and rescue operations
• Development of a diving suit that resists exposure to pressures greater than 1ATA while diving at depth
• Development of technologies that provide guidance through mission-related tasks by enhancing diver’s navigation and communication capabilities and general awareness of surroundings and threats