Ever wondered how the Navy would pluck wounded special
forces operators from an enemy beach, fast? Getting off an exposed beach in one
piece, under incoming fire, is surely one of the most dangerous operations
imaginable. It requires speed and great confidence in the personnel and
machines involved. Surprisingly perhaps, commercial off-the-shelf water
scooters, similar to the personal watercraft used by water sports enthusiasts
the world over, are a popular solution among special forces.
Naval Special Warfare Command’s love of the humble Jet Ski,
and they call them that even in official documents, has gone under the radar
for many years. But they are now cropping up more and more often in the public
domain. The Navy released photos of Jet Skis being used by Special Operations
Forces in Greece in 2017, and with Thai forces during Exercise Tempest Wind
2019 in June. Most recently U.S. Special Operations Command issued a request
for three Jet Skis to replace ones worn out during training. These will be used
by the Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command in San Diego, California to
prepare future Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) who will operate
small boats for the US Navy SEALs.
Jet Skis have the advantages of being quick and agile, and
can operate in extremely shallow water including through the surf zone to a
beach. Their main task is to extract special forces, and they can be used to
pick up casualties, downed pilots or prisoners, or be used in counter-terrorism
missions. To get where the action is they can be carried by larger boats or,
for long range covert missions, in the hangar of the secretive SEAL Insertion,
Observation and Neutralization (SEALION). These high speed stealth boats are
semi-submersible meaning that they partially sink in order to reduce their
radar signatures even further.
The US Navy is not alone in appreciating the merits of water
scooters and several NATO special forces units also have them in their
inventories. The Navy’s preferred model is the Yamaha FX Cruiser SHO, although
other countries use a wide array of competing makes and designs. In Navy
service the two or three-seat jet skis are highly modified and fitted with
inflatable anti-roll collars and rescue sleds so that equipment or special
forces can be towed behind. Naturally the crew can be armed, and machine guns
can be fitted to help suppress enemy positions.
In the Persian Gulf the Iranian IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps) use water scooters armed with rocket propelled grenades for
reconnaissance and nuisance attacks on commercial shipping.
Special Forces are always experimenting with new ideas and
technologies so new adaptions of the Jet Ski have been developed at Sofwerx, a
Florida based innovation center which provides rapid prototyping of potential
solutions for US Special Operations Command. Earlier this year they tested a
submersible personal watercraft which can operate like a regular Jet Ski on the
surface, but can also hide beneath the waves. This could allow it to be
launched and recovered from a submarine, a capability which currently no Navy
has.
Shared from Forbes by H Sutton
