ROYAL NAVY CLEARANCE DIVERS

The Royal Navy's elite Clearance Diving branch work within the Diving & Threat Exploitation Group (DTXG) – which replaces the long-standing Fleet Diving Squadron.

The expert frogmen/bomb disposal experts (known as CD's) aim to do more and be more agile, while using the latest tech, in order to keep the Navy’s fleet and the public safe, globally.

Based in Portsmouth, Plymouth and Faslane, Royal Navy Divers can be called to a range of tasks, including explosive disposal of historic ordnance and the rendering safe of improvised explosive devices around the UK as well as clearing sea mines in the world’s seas and oceans and deterring terrorists across the globe.

CD's have been involved in every major British conflict since their inception and have most recently deployed teams to Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. They have units operating permanently in the Middle East and have continuously provided an Underwater Force Protection (UWFP) element since the United States 9/11 attacks. The training to become a Royal Navy Mine Clearance Diver is notoriously extremely arduous and lasts around 7 months.

The course has been known to have a 100% failure rate in the past, though usually, around 40% of trainees will make it successfully through to the end.