IN the heart of land-locked Herefordshire, a specialist firm is working on the future for undersea engineering.

Hereford’s Deep Blue Engineering has floated its “Shuttle Sub” as that future – and hired the man to make it happen.

Deep Blue, based on Three Mills trading estate,  serves the high stakes marine, oil, gas and renewable energy  sector with specialist engineering design and development. contractor.

Deep Blue's patent pending Shuttle Sub is a remotely operated submarine capable of carrying and deploying heavy payloads to the seabed.

What the Shuttle Sub needs now is a propulsion system, and that brings Dieter Watelle on board.

With a background in electromechanical technology, Dieter has been hired as the project’s design engineer.

At its simplest, his brief is to take on one of the biggest challenges inherent in any subsea delivery system.

Intended for heavy payloads, Shuttle Sub has to be capable of coping with installation, retrieval and salvage operations.

Laden with a payload of 100 tonnes, the buoyant-controlled Shuttle Sub has been tested to float, dive, surface and maintain neutral buoyancy, making it ideally suited for work deepwater environments.

But, to do so, Shuttle Sub needs propulsion systems capable of propelling it, even when carrying such 100 tonnes.

“Because it must propel itself at depths to 1,500 metres while carrying upwards of 100 tonnes, the Shuttle Sub’s propulsion systems must be very sophisticated and powerful. But it must still be easy to handle, to ensure the safety of everyone and everything involved.” said Dieter.

“Right now, I am focused solely on making certain that the propulsion systems will deliver the power in the desired direction to increase manoeuvrability and stay reliable, regardless of the weight of the payload or how far subsea it is travelling,” he said.

As a prototype, Shuttle Sub should be ready for first “wet trials” later this year.

With its HQ in Hereford, Deep Blue Engineering UK Ltd was founded in 2008 by managing director David Webster and has since developed products for a number of high profile businesses, including subsea HIPPS, a range of gate valve actuators, a rotary steerable drilling system and its own patented Rotolay steel tube flying lead deployment system. 

Shuttle Sub is the company’s most recent subsea lift and deployment system.