MIR submersible preparing to dive off the coast of west Africa,1987

Due to CoCom restrictions, mainly Finnish firms contributed to the development of what might otherwise have been a multinational project. The electronics were developed by Hollming. The syntactic foam was produced in Finland by Exel Oyj, as 3M, the leading producer, refused to supply it. The most important element for the development of the MIR were the metal-lurgical innovations made in Rauma-Repola Oseanics Lokomo workshop in Tampere. The photograph shows one of the MIR submersible's first dives in November and December 1987. The tests took place between Cape Verde and Canary Islands and were carried out by a group of specialists from the Russian Academy of Science and Rauma-Repola Oceanics. The tests proved that it was possible to dive to 6000 meters. The vehicles were equipped with cameras and different measuring instruments; they were neither used nor intended for spying or underwater operations but only for scientific ocean research.