It is July 30, suspended 120 meters deep, in the blue waters of the Ligurian Sea, a team of diving operators from COMSUBIN is preparing for the ascent; it is a sunny day but the light does not reach those depths.
The surface is still far away: they will need several hours of decompression before they can reach it, finishing the advanced training at deep dives (PI).
Started on 7 June and in strict compliance with anti-covid regulations, the IP course allowed 6 divers to acquire the coveted qualification that will allow them to be able to dive with helium-based mixtures up to a maximum depth of 300 meters.
The 6 operators, made up of 2 officers and 4 graduates, progressively carried out activities with increasing difficulty, until reaching the maximum expected quota, with the support of Nave Antaeus, of the Schools Group, of Diving Operations Group and Health service of the COMSUBIN.
Deep dives develop through two different types of configuration. At high depths, it is not possible to breathe air, but it is necessary to resort to synthetic mixtures composed of oxygen and helium, whose composition percentages vary according to the altitude.
The first configuration is the so-called "intervention dives", up to a maximum depth of 150 meters and aimed at short-term operations that involve several hours of decompression for divers.
The second configuration includes "saturation dives", ie those carried out to conduct complex and long-lasting operations (several days), in which divers live confined in a hyperbaric environment for up to 14 days. Through saturation dives, you can reach the maximum depth of 300 meters and live in a pressurized microclimate for several days.
Through the latter type, the underwater departments have carried out important submarine operations in the past, not least that of archaeological excavation at Capo Noli (2018), which lasted 10 days.
These dives are carried out using a diving bell (Submersible Decompression Chamber) which is carried in depth and from which the operators exit. Ship Antaeus constitutes the naval platform from which to carry out these activities, through the Integrated System for deep diving: a very complex system that manages all the phases ranging from the analysis of respiratory mixtures, to underwater transport in depth, up to the necessary decompressions.
The conclusion of this important qualification requires strong professionalism and a very high technical level: the delicate synthesis between deep knowledge of the physics of deep diving, an extraordinary physical and psychological ability of the operators and the precious technical-logistic support necessary in these cases.
Deep diving undoubtedly represents a "state of the art" ability in the world of international diving and that the Navy cultivates and cares for with great passion and pride. A precious ability, also in the context of the alliances of which Italy is a part.
