he Underwater Explosions Research Department is proud of its unique history as one of the Navy's oldest engineering activities dedicated to supporting RDT&E efforts to ensure that our vessels are afforded the best possible protection against underwater weapon attacks.

     The war at sea during World War I demonstrated the power of the torpedo as well as floating and anchored mines, and pointed out the need for better protection against these weapons.  Although modest efforts were being pursued at the turn of the century, it was not until the late 1930's that a concerted effort was made to broaden the experimental program.  A small group of personnel in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard was organized by the Bureau of Ships to perform experimentation of underwater explosion effects on small structural models of newly designed naval vessels.  In the early 1940's the shipyard test group designed and fabricated the Underwater Explosions Barge (UEB-1) to extend the experimental testing capabilities.  Numerous tests were performed to study ways of improving the strength of ships' hulls to resist the damaging effects of underwater explosions.

     World War II saw the introduction of more sophisticated weapons, and many ships were disabled by non-contact underwater explosions - a direct hit was not necessary to remove a ship from combat.  As a result, research on the effects of underwater explosions was intensified, and on December 18, 1946, the Underwater Explosions Research Division (UERD) was established as a division of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.  The Division was subsequently realigned in 1961 with what is now the Survivability, Structures and Materials Directorate of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (formerly David Taylor Model Basin).

     Under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Alfred Keil, the Division's first chief scientist, and Dr. Heinrich Schauer, who became the Division Head in 1959, UERD embarked on experimental programs to investigate methods for improving the resistance of ships and submarines to underwater weapons, to determine ways to assess the effects of underwater explosions on ships and to provide guidance for improvement of U.S. weapons' effectiveness.

Dr. Alfred Keil

Dr. Heinrich Schauer

     During its fifty year history, UERD has worked with many other Navy and Department of Defense activities and support contractors in a broad range of RDT&E, including full scale ship and submarine shock trials, test section and weapons effects trials, equipment shock hardening and shock qualification tests, precision experiments with scale-model targets, free field phenomena experiments, and exercise torpedo impact.  With highly mobile assets, UERD supports at-sea testing programs, and testing at numerous land based facilities, including the newly developed Underwater Explosions Test Facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.