REBREATHER Diving GEAR

The Draeger rebreather unit LAR-V Mod 2 attaches to the wearer's chest. Newer models go over the back like traditional SCUBA gear

The Special Boat Service and the 4 Boat Troops of the Special Air Service use some specialized gear when working underwater.

Traditional open-circuit SCUBA gear is both bulky and heavy. Furthermore, SCUBA tends to leak large quantities of bubbles to the surface, revealing the presence of the diver.

Rebreathers are closed-circuit systems which recycle the diver's breath after filtering out and storing the carbon dioxide, adding extra oxygen as needed. This design makes for smaller, lighter breathing sets that leave no telltale bubble-trails. For these reasons, rebreathers are the preferred breathing apparatus for Special Forces.

Rebreathers can be used down to 70 feet. UKSF divers rarely, if ever, need to go below this depth and so rebreathers can therefore be worn on a wide range of tasks, such as:

• exit and re-entry of sub-merged submarines
• piloting mini-submarines (although these would normally have on-board oxygen supplies)
• planting magnetic limpet mines or tracking devices on ship's hulls
• clandestine approach to maritime counter-terrorism objectives
• shore / beach reconnaissance

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