Apparatus for deploying and recovering a seaborne vessel

摘要

An apparatus for employing and retrieving a seaborne vehicle having a frangible surface includes a muzzle and a cylindrically shaped cocoon. The muzzle is clamped to the vehicle and then pulled by a rope into the cocoon. Bladders within the cocoon are inflated with pressurized air to retain the vehicle. The vehicle can then be safely retrieved by hoisting the cocoon out of the ocean. Vehicle deployment is achieved by placing the vehicle in the cocoon, pressurizing the bladders with air, lowering the cocoon and attendant vehicle into the ocean, exhausting the air from the bladders, and then towing the cocoon so that water passing through apertures in the bow of the cocoon push the vehicle into the open ocean.