$100 Million in Secret Hardware Salvaged by Navy's Super Scorpio
By Harlan Pryce ·
Secret weapon prototypes and encryption devices were left to the abyss until the Unmanned Vehicles Detachment recovered $100 million in hardware to prevent adversary windfalls.
A one-inch steel cable cutter and two manipulators capable of lifting 250 pounds each. These are the primary tools of the Super Scorpio, a tethered unmanned work vehicle designed to operate at depths of 5,000 feet. According to a program description hosted by the FAS Intelligence Resource Program, this machine was not merely an observer of the deep; it was a recovery agent for the Unmanned Vehicles Detachment (UMV).
For the UMV, the ocean floor is not a wilderness but a warehouse of lost assets. The unit was organized in the mid-1970s, drawing personnel from the Deep Submergence Unit and Submarine Development Squadron 5. In its infancy, the UMV relied on a precision navigation system and a Side Looking Sonar (SILOS) system. These early tools allowed the unit to conduct search and survey operations, though the FAS record notes these were conducted "mostly in shallow water and near land."
August 1987
The scope of the UMV's reach expanded significantly in August 1987 with the delivery of the Super Scorpio. This vehicle represented a leap in payload capacity over the earlier RCV models, transforming the unit from a survey team into a salvage operation. The Super Scorpio is a heavy piece of kit—weighing 4,500 pounds and measuring 4 by 4 by 8 feet—designed to move at 4 knots forward and aft, and 2 knots laterally.
Beyond the physical strength of its manipulators, the Super Scorpio carried the eyes and ears of the state into the abyss. It was equipped with a 107-122kHz CTFM sonar with a 2,000-foot range, two black and white video cameras (the Osprey SL-90), and a suite of lighting including two HMI lights and four 250-watt incandescent bulbs. It was a specialized tool for finding things that were meant to stay lost.
Document imagery from irp.fas.org From the files: irp.fas.org
The $100 Million Tab
The FAS mirror records a striking figure: in recent years, the ROVs of the Unmanned Vehicles Detachment have been responsible for the recovery of "over 100 million dollars worth of military and civilian hardware."
In the lexicon of government records, "hardware" is a convenient word. It is an umbrella term that obscures the specific nature of the objects being hauled from the seabed. While the record claims the unit has been "instrumental in the successful completion of various research endeavors by the United States' scientific community," it remains silent on the specifics of the military hardware recovered.
When the Navy spends millions to retrieve "hardware" from the deep, it is rarely for the sake of tidiness. Recovery operations often center on preventing sensitive technology—encryption devices, sonar arrays, or weapon prototypes—from falling into the hands of foreign powers. The $100 million figure is a measure of value, but it is also a measure of risk. Every piece of hardware left on the ocean floor is a potential intelligence windfall for an adversary. The Super Scorpio was the insurance policy against that risk.
1992 and the Fiber Optic Tether
The evolution of the UMV did not stop with the Super Scorpio. The record identifies a final system delivered in 1992: the Advanced Tethered Vehicle (ATV).
While similar in design to the Scorpio, the ATV pushed the boundaries of the unit's operational envelope. It boasted a greater depth capacity and, crucially, a fiber optic tether. This upgrade allowed for "more efficient data transfer between the ROV and its surface operators," enabling a higher resolution of surveillance and control than the previous iterations allowed.
Public records, such as the Wikipedia entry for the Scorpio ROV, note that the brand was originally developed by AMETEK Straza and later by Perry Tritech, serving both the oil industry and naval rescue services. But the UMV's application of the technology was distinct. Where a commercial diver sees a pipeline leak or a rescue team sees a downed submarine, the UMV saw a recovery target.
Related files on the subject exist within the NSArchive, including documents concerning military and security developments in China and the Department of Defense's budget requests for 2024, though the specific inventory of the "hardware" retrieved by the Super Scorpio remains an open gap in the record. The FAS document leaves us with the image of a 4,500-pound machine, cutting through steel cables in the dark, pulling millions of dollars of secrets back to the surface.