NAVSEA TS500-AU-SPN-010 U.S. NAVY GENERAL SPECIFICATION FOR THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND REPAIR OF DIVING AND HYPERBARIC EQUIPMENT Revision 1 August 23, 2006

FOREWORD
“Why can’t somebody clearly establish the requirements to design, build and repair U. S. Navy diving systems so that when it comes time to certify them we don’t have to fight over differing interpretations of requirements?”

For longer than we’d like to think about, that’s a question that has been asked throughout the diving Navy. We’ve all asked it. So we decided to answer it. The express purpose of this technical publication – U.S. Navy General Specification for the Design, Construction, and Repair of Diving And Hyperbaric Equipment (aka “GENSPEC for DLSS”) – is to authoritatively establish technical requirements for design, construction and repair for afloat diving and hyperbaric systems for use in the U.S. Navy.

The first publication of this document approximately one year ago provided the early results of a complex job of defining DLSS and hyperbaric technical requirements. This most recent edition (Revision 1) continues the effort by rewriting the section on testing requirements, adding diver handling system testing requirements, adding a section for design requirements for specific systems (surface supplied diving systems, recompression chambers and saturation systems) and by including addition of joint identification (JID) examples in Appendix D.

Some of you may immediately recognize that the most recent edition of the U.S. Navy Diving and Hyperbarics Systems Safety Certification Manual (SS521-AA-MAN-010) also contains some technical requirements for design, construction and repair of these same systems. That is soon to change. We have stripped technical requirements out of the next revision to “MAN-10” so that GENSPEC for DLSS is now the principal technical authority document for afloat diving and hyperbaric systems. A revised MAN-10 will soon be issued; it will remain the principal document that defines the process (not the requirements) for safety certification – a process that includes validating that requirements established by GENSPEC for DLSS are met. In all cases, the GENSPEC for DLSS takes precedence over MAN-10 for issues of technical requirements; MAN-10 takes precedence for the DLSS Safety Certification process.

Disclaimer: A careful review of this new revision to this technical publication will reveal it is not yet fully comprehensive. Several sections and appendices are yet to be completed. And we’re sure there are some great ideas from the Fleet that we’ve not thought of that need to get incorporated. Send them in (james.r.wilkins@navy.mil or robert.c.whaley@navy.mil) so we can better support you. We’ll continue to update and release revised GENSPEC for DLSS in the near future to make sure we stay current.

So here it is – the authoritative (though not yet comprehensive) U.S. Navy technical requirements document for design, construction, and repair of afloat diving and hyperbaric systems. Looking forward to your feedback to make this even better!