The Protei-5 (Протей-5) is a small

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n one-man

diver propulsion vehicle A diver propulsion vehicle (DPV), also known as an underwater propulsion vehicle, sea scooter, underwater scooter, or swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) by armed forces, is an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers to increase range underw ...

often used by Russian commando frogmen. It is

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

electric powered, using six non-sealed lead–acid batteries.Diver Dave's Site
, going by information received, said that its batteries were silver–zinc batteries, but on examination they proved to be lead–acid batteries. It clips on under the diver with a clip over each shoulder and one up between his legs. Its casing is

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

. It was intended to be clipped onto the outside of a

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

; near the operation site the frogmen would airlock out underwater and unhitch their Protei 5's and ride them to the operation site. It seems to have been intended to be ridden fast and far rather than for complicated maneuvering. The Russian for this sort of "diver-carrying vehicle" is буксировщик ''buksirovshchik'' = "tugger". The rod sticking out of the front end was meant to carry a lamp.
The lever on the left bow is the motor's on/off switch. There is no speed control.
The frogman steers with the diving fins on his feet.
Overall size: 66 centimetres (2 feet 2 inches) wide, 69 centimetres (2 feet 3 inches) high, 1.75 (5 feet 9 inches) long.
Size of hull: 66 centimetres (2 feet 2 inches) wide, 38 centimetres (1 feet 3 inches) high, 1.45 m (4 feet 9 inches) long. A frogman with an

IDA71 The Soviet, later Russian IDA71 military and naval rebreather is an oxygen rebreather intended for use by naval and military divers including Russian commando frogmen. As supplied it is in a plain backpack harness with no buoyancy aid. The casin ...

rebreather riding a Protei-7 could pass through a hole {{convert, 0.9, m, ft square. Only two Protei-5 are known to exist outside of the ex-

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

: * One is currently in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

, USA. * One is fully operational in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, USA; it was made in 1970 and its motor is noisy. This example was imported along with some 15
IDA-59

IDA-71 The Soviet, later Russian IDA71 military and naval rebreather is an oxygen rebreather intended for use by naval and military divers including Russian commando frogmen. As supplied it is in a plain backpack harness with no buoyancy aid. The casin ...

, an
AKA-60

rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...

s, all ex-Soviet military combat swimmers' systems. Similar designs have been made in Russia, including a model called Proton. The name "Protei" is a Russian version of the classical

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

/ Greek

mythological Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

name

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...

References

External links

article "Riding on Proton" by Afonchenko
(in Russian, with 6 images, about diving with a similar craft called a Proton)
Search for Youtube videos about the Protei-5
**Some Protei 5's got into American hands and were filmed used by a civilian; t
at least one of them
a civilian user (who also repainted it) added a long front pair of handlebars, which is not part of them as made in the

. Diver propulsion equipment Military equipment of the Soviet Union Soviet inventions