Shadow Seal – Tactical Diving Vehicle

SOF Week 2023 held at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida is an opportunity for the defense industry to feature some of their newest offerings to the special operations community. There are hundreds of exhibits by firms displaying products and services for the SOF professionals. It takes the entire week just to stop by each booth to check out what is offered. Depending on your interests, you tend to spend more time at some displays than others. Over the next several weeks I will write on some of the more interesting offerings on display at SOF Week. Today’s post is about a tactical diving vehicle called the Shadow Seal. The information below in quotes is from a press release about the Shadow Seal.

“JFD – part of James Fisher and Sons plc – has launched its advanced four man tactical diving platform, Shadow Seal, during SOF Week 2023, ahead of delivery to United States partner Blue Tide Marine (BTM) for demonstration and training purposes.

Shadow Seal is an adaptable and extremely capable lightweight Tactical Diving Vehicle (TDV) able to transport a pilot, navigator and two passengers in surface, semi submerged and submerged mode with a range of 80nm. 

Shadow Seal offers unparalleled underwater maneuverability to Special Operations Forces required to covertly cross the expanding offshore and littoral water gap. Adaptable to suit a variety of ISTAR and combat requirements, the platform provides sophisticated protection to complex, high value platforms and critical infrastructure. 

The TDV is a multi-mission capable platform provides an opportunity to modernize the undersea capabilities of USSOCOM, the US Navy, and other organizations with advanced mission focused technology, extended range and offers practical training and in service support.” 


About John Friberg 201 Articles
John Friberg is the Editor and Publisher of SOF News. He is a retired Command Chief Warrant Officer (CW5 180A) with 40 years service in the U.S. Army Special Forces with active duty and reserve components.