SPECIALIST clearance divers will soon be able to deal with unexploded devices at depths up to 200ft thanks to new kit being introduced.

The RN has clinched a deal with Aberdeen firm DIVEX for a state-of-the-art piece of re-breathing kit (which recycles a diver’s exhaled air) which can allow the Portsmouth-based Fleet Diving Squadron to operate down to 60 metres – something the divers have not been able to do for the past four years.

The CDLSE (Clearance Divers’ Life-Support Equipment) is the most advanced electronic mixture gas re-breather in the world and allows the specialist frogmen to resume the full range of clearance diving tasks.

Unmanned and manned trials of the new breathing apparatus will be conducted over coming months with the first divers from the squadron becoming qualified to operate with CDLSE from November.

The first batches of production sets will be delivered in the middle of next year and the career training will begin at the Defence Diving School on Horsea Island in September 2008.

Although the new apparatus can cope with depths of 60 metres (196 ft) – the depth required by current RN operations – it is capable of going deeper, something diving experts at Fleet Headquarters in Portsmouth are looking at should front-line operations demand it.

“The arrival of the new apparatus will be a major boost to clearance diving and provide the RN with a first-class diving capability,” said Cdr Chris Ameye, the Superintendent of Diving.

Clearance divers have served the Fleet in various guises since 1838, dealing not merely with unexploded ordnance but also engineering tasks beneath the sea.

For those who think that mine disposal is a thing of the past, the RN’s clearance divers dealt with reams of Iraqi weaponry in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.