underwater operations. Most hardware is common to civil and military underwater vehicles, some others are specific. The company has two interrelated lines of business, civil and military. The latest achievements have been the award of a contract by Marina Militare for the design and production of a navy-tailored submarine rescue module within its programme for a new submarine rescue vessel (known as SDO-SuRS, Special Diving Operations – Submarine Rescue System) and the production of the new D-ONE diving helmet. The latter is expected to be revolutionary equipment for submarines, allowing for greater safety and better performance than legacy equipment, yet at a reasonable price. Furthermore, DRASS pursues R&D of plenty of underwater solutions dedicated to submarine infrastructure, energy, and unmanned technology, with a special focus on underwater communications – a key enabler for the development of swarm tactics. For instance, DRASS is a major partner of Italian energy giant SAIPEM for all its underwater activities. DRASS’ knowledge base is also exploited for military applications, including SVDs, midgets, and mini submarines. The company is middle sized, with some 220 employees (engineers, specialized workers, etc.) split in two production sites in Livorno (Italy) and Györöd (Romania). DS-Class SVDs The DS-class of SDVs is designed for transporting between two and eight combat divers and their equipment 40-50 nautical miles distance from a deployment base, a mothership, or a submarine. To standardise the offer, DRASS proposes the DS-4 and DS-8 as base configurations, for four and eight commandos respectively, or a mix of divers and payload (additional equipment or mines). The DS-4 is 7.7m long and weights 3.8t, For the first time, Italy’s specialist in civil and military underwater systems allowed MilTech to explore in depth the world of insidious underwater vehicles such as Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDV), midgets, and mini submarines. Technology Base The historical starting point of DRASS-Galeazzi goes back to the1920s, when the founder, Mr. Galeazzi, a pioneer in underwater operations, specialized in the construction of decompression chambers. In the military sector, the company is known for its Maiali (Pigs), underwater commando vehicles that allowed Italian frogmen to attack enemy harbours, like in the famous raid on Alexandria (Egypt) in 1941. Those years also represented a technology trigger for underwater technology. Sergio Cappelletti, DRASS’ CEO, explains that “the simplest object having to operate underwater must be adapted to sustain a 30-bar pressure, meaning that all thermodynamic laws are completely upset down. Our knowledge base is about modifying every object to fit into an underwater environment. We can do it thanks to a slow, century-long, stratification process of competences and skills”. As we visited an example of a large decompression module, all this became clear. Screens need special coverage, anti-smoke sensors need to be resettled (everything burns faster), and so forth. Every single piece must be re-engineered for underwater use. Some others need to be miniaturized or improved along with emerging technologies – touch screens, composite materials components, electronics. For this reason, DRASS was proud of showcasing numerous objects reworked for Marco Giulio Barone Underwater Technology at DRASS-Galeazzi Italy’s Legacy in Commando Operations 46 · MT 5/2022 Nations in Focus
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