Canadian armed forces divers
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Canada's armed forces have combat divers and clearance divers.
[edit] Clearance divers
Canada has currently two operational units from which Clearance Divers perform a variety of tasks:-
- Battle Damage Repair (BDR)
- Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)
- Force Protection (FP).
- Training Canada's combat divers
These units are:-
- Fleet Diving Unit Pacific based at CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia.
- Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic based near CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Canada's Clearance Divers serve in operational Fleet Diving Units. Clearance Divers are considered among the most skilled underwater operators in the world. They are trained in:
- Mine Counter-Measures (MCM)
- Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)
- Battle Damage Repair (BDR)
- Force Protection Support (FPS)
Their motto is "Strength in depth".
Clearance Diving Officers and Divers also serve at:-
- the Experimental Diving Unit (EDU) at Defence Research and Development Canada
- the CFSAL - EOD School in CFB Borden, Ontario.
Clearance Diving Officers and Clearance Divers also serve at D Dive S (Director Diving Safety) at the Department of National Defence Headquarters (Canada) in Ottawa, Ontario.
[edit] Combat divers
Canada's Combat Divers are an Occupation Sub-Specialization (OSS) in its Army Combat Engineering Regiments.
Weapons used include:
- C6 medium machine gun.
- C7 Assault rifle (C7A1, C7A2, C7A3, etc)
- C8 assault carbine
- C8 PDW (Personal Defense Weapon)
Considering their role in the Army (demolition, reconnaissance, etc), their weapons tend more towards explosives rather than firearms. As such, each diver typically carries about 20kg of high explosives. Such explosives include: The entire line of grenades, demolition, and pyrotechnics in SNC-TEC, such as, Demolition Charge M2A4, Demolition Charge M3A1, Trigran Prills, 40 mm Parachute Rocket Flare C7, Trip Flare C6, High Explosive Fragmentation C13/M67 grenades. For heavy fire support, the divers' engineer demolition section uses the C14 Mine Launcher, which can be remotely fired.
Considering their job, their land transport is limited, but they have various water craft. Such craft include:
- Phantom Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV)
- The SeaDoo Sea Scooter, TAYUT, a Diver Propulsion Vehicle
- General Purpose Boat FDU(P)
- Yard Diving Tender (YDT) Sooke
- The YDT 11 FDU(P)
- The entire line of Nuytco submersibles is readily available.
- For air transportation, the CH-146 Griffon Tactical Utility Helicopter is used.
- MEDIUM FLOATING BRIDGE (MFB) / MEDIUM RAFT (MR) which is transported by a heavily modified AHSVS.
- MEDIUM GIRDER BRIDGE (MGB) which can be laid by a Beaver Engineer Support Vehicle.
