Soviet Diver Training Tank, Latvia

This Soviet Diver Training Tank is located in a crumbling, ruined building in Latvia. I explored this location during my Baltics Tour 2019. I am unable to find much specific information about this location, which is a little frustrating for someone who is obsessed with details. Instead, I can offer some description of the building and provide some context in this way. Additionally, I gleaned some information about the equipment used here, which might provide an interesting aside in absence of any historical info.

Exploring an abandoned Soviet Diver Training Tank

The building is three storeys tall, and quite narrow. A single dark tight corridor provides access to the spiral stairs, also pitch black. The claustrophobic stairs encircle the concrete tank, spiralling up around the outside of if. There are portholes at regular intervals, which would have allowed monitoring of the divers inside. There is a small room about half-way up the staircase, which housed some broken pieces of equipment and diving masks.

The uppermost room is mostly filled with the open tank, only a short rim between me and a three storey drop. At the bottom of the tank there is still some water, probably not very deep but it is hard to tell from up here. There is a radiator on the wall of the tank, presumably to prevent freezing during the winter. There is a diving suit draped over the rim of the tank, and some paperwork and teaching material on the rickety old table.

Снаряжение водолазное универсальное СВУ-3, or “Universal diving equipment SVU-3”

Based on my research, I hope this is accurate. If I have made any errors in this article, please do let me know in the comments or drop me a message with my contact form.

Sifting through some of the paperwork (and running it through Google Translate), provided some information about the equipment in use here. The set-up mentioned in the documents was called Снаряжение водолазное универсальное СВУ-3, or “Universal diving equipment SVU-3”. This equipment loadout was first used in the 1970s and enabled military divers to descend down to depths of 60m.

The diving suit used would be a СВУ-A (SVU-A) or СВУ-B (SVU-B) model. The breathing apparatus was an open circuit system, in this case the АВМ-5, or related system. At diving depths of less than 40m, air would be supplied via a hose. When diving depth were projected to exceeded 40m, compressed air supply cylinders would be used. With two cylinders this system gave the diver approximately 3hours breathing time at the maximum depth of 60m.

From what I can discern, the СВУ-3 system was standard Soviet navy issue up until its dissolution in the 1990s. The system appears to have remained in use in the Russian navy at least until the late 2000s, when it was eventually replaced by more modern set-ups.

Abandoned in the early 2000s – or A red herring?

Curiously there are some indications the Soviet Diver Training Tank was still in use in the 2000s. I found a diving equipment catalogue from the 2000s date sitting on a table. This seems strange given the condition of the building, but it seems that I will never know for sure.