UP FROM THE DEEP

Submarine rescue vehicles (DSRVs) is the strongest, but not the least, capability on which JFD has built its reputation among naval and special forces.

by Andrew Drwiega

The underwater world is the Earth’s least explored geographical area, primarily because it is so difficult for people to operate under the waves with ease and for long periods. The majority of naval submarines operate at depths below, often well below, 600 metres (2,000 feet). Some nuclear submarines have stronger hulls and have increased design depths that are mainly below 900m (3,000ft), but they are not the usual operational depths. The deepest area of the ocean, by contrast, is the Mariana Trench which has been measured at 11,034m (36,200 feet).

When a catastrophe happens onboard a military submarine, such as in the case of the Indonesian Navy’s Cakra-class Type 209/1300 diesel-electric attack submarines KRI Nanggala-402 in April 2021, the main concern is to locate it and try and rescue the crew in the shortest possible time. Unfortunately, when wreckage was discovered it was at a depth of of 850m (2,800 ft), way beyond its stated crush depth of around 500m (1,600 ft).

But on the scene was a submarine rescue vessel from James Fisher’s rescue company JFD, a specialist global supplier of submarine rescue vehicles. Should circumstances have been different and the submarine had been discovered intact with a crew needing rescue, the specialist deep sea rescue vehicle (DSRV) would have been deployed to try and rescue the crew.

International rescue

“Submarine rescue is the core of what we do,” said Richard Dellar, JFD’s managing director speaking to Asian Military Review. The company’s Submarine Rescue Service (SRS) has a reputation and a customer base to match.

The Singaporean and Indian Navies are two of the stand-out customers. “We recently signed a 25 year support maintenance contract with the Indian Navy which began this year, said Dellar. The Indian Navy has fully embraced the capability, including having its own operators fully trained and able to operate the equipment independently. “India has done more live sub-mates - practising extracting crews out of submarines using the rescue vessel and into the hyperbaric chamber - in the three years that they have had the craft than some of our other customers who have had their kit for 20 years,” explained Dellar. He added that the Indian Navy had transitioned to maintaining and operating their own sub rescue systems.

Customers need to be aware of the logistics of deploying a DSRV. Originally transportable in the Antanov 225, now destroyed as a casualty of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine,