scope:

This standard provides requirements for design, testing and acceptance for watertight integrity of submarines. It is applicable to both new design and existing classes of submarine.

STGP 99 discusses watertight integrity design policy for submarines and the consequences of its loss, defines the watertight envelope and hazards and consequent modes of failure.

This document does not consider collapse of the pressure hull as a Watertight integrity issue; hull design is covered by STGP 74 Design of Submarine Structures, Design Standards for Submarine Structure (Ref. Doc - Safety Factors) and Def Stan 08-163 Design Standards for Submarine Structure (Load Factors).

The overall responsibility for the safety of all vessels and associated equipment owned or operated by the MoD lies with the Secretary of State for Defence. He issued a Health and Safety policy statement in 1996 which states that health and safety standards and arrangements within the MoD will be, so far as reasonably practicable, at least as good as those required by statute. To assure the safety of MoD shipping activities the Ship Safety Management System was introduced. The policy and guidelines for the management system are laid down in JSP 430. This identified watertight integrity as one of the key hazards to submarines which would require safety certification.

The philosophy of submarine design for survivability from both peacetime accidents and wartime threats is addressed in the Submarine Survivability Policy Discussion Paper DGSM/DNA&FP/109/1/1/1 dated May 1997.