Atmosphere Trials on United States Navy Submarines

The US Navy is currently conducting a new round of atmosphere control sea trials on operational submarines. Atmosphere trials have been conducted over the past four decades. Traditionally each trial builds upon the prior one. For this next round of atmosphere control trials, the US Navy started with a bottom up approach to the entire trial. A team of engineers, chemists, industrial hygiene scientists and medical experts was assembled to develop the test protocol and then execute the trial. The team established a methodology to identify the monitoring requirements, sampling location and periodicity. Two underway atmosphere trials are currently scheduled. The first trial will be held onboard a submarine designed in the 1970's and commissioned in the mid 1990's. The second trial will be conducted on a newly designed submarine soon entering operational service.

This paper will report the selection process for defining monitored analytes, establishing limits of detection and sample volume collection. The paper will identify the analytical techniques selected. Both real time and retrospective methods are included in the trials. Examples of specific analytes will be provided to demonstrate the selection process.