U.S. Navy taps Oceaneering to upgrade SEAL submarine shelters

The U.S. Navy has awarded Oceaneering International a contract worth up to $154.1 million to keep its Dry Deck Shelters working, the hangar-like chambers that let U.S. Navy SEALs leave and return to a submarine while it stays submerged.

Oceaneering’s Marine Services Division in Chesapeake, Virginia, received a $24.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-type contract on Sept. 28 for maintenance, modernization, product improvements and design support for existing Dry Deck Shelter program assets, according to the Department of War. The base work runs to September 2027. If the U.S. Navy exercises all options, the contract will reach $154,131,337 and run through September 2031.

About $13.1 million was obligated at award: $9.8 million in fiscal 2026 defense-wide operations and maintenance funds and $3.25 million in fiscal 2025 defense-wide procurement funds from reconciliation money. The $9.8 million expires on Sept. 30, two days after the award date.

Naval Sea Systems Command competed the contract through the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment website and received two offers. Three quarters of the work will be done in Chesapeake and the rest in Pearl City, Hawaii.

Oceaneering announced the deal on Oct. 1 as a follow-on award covering maintenance, overhaul, engineering and field change services, with one base year and four option years. The company said its Marine Services Division has supported the program since 2002. In 2018, it won a $68.8 million contract for similar work on what Naval Today described as U.S. Special Operations Command’s shelter assets, supporting Naval Special Warfare Command.

A Dry Deck Shelter attaches behind the sail of a specially modified submarine and connects to the boat’s hatch. Each shelter is about 38 feet (11.6 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide and adds roughly 30 tons to the submarine. It can be moved by truck or C-5 transport aircraft and fitted to a host submarine in one to three days. Inside are a hyperbaric chamber for treating injured divers, a transfer trunk, and a hangar that can carry a SEAL Delivery Vehicle, a small flooded submersible, or about 20 SEALs with four inflatable raiding craft.

General Dynamics Electric Boat completed the first shelter in 1982, and a SOCOM official said in 2024 that five remained in service, with a replacement effort, Dry Deck Shelter Next, started in fiscal 2024, Defense News reported. SOCOM wanted the new design to use more automation and remote operation, cutting the crew needed to run a shelter from 10 sailors to six or fewer.

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