New submarine docking system ‘could save lives’

A NEW evacuation system could mean the difference between life and death for submariners trapped underwater in their vessels, the Royal Navy has revealed.

The new system, trialled alongside the French and Swedish navies, should shave “vital hours” off rescue missions.

The Nato Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), jointly owned by the UK, France and Norway, can dive to a submarine in distress, dock with its escape hatches and take sailors to safety.

The system can be transported anywhere in the world within 72 hours.

Before it was developed the most time-consuming element of rescue missions was the need to weld a decompression chamber to a vessel available to conduct the rescue.

Recent trials in the Baltic Sea and Liverpool Bay have perfected the new system.

British submariners said it gave them “a lot of comfort” to know that the rescue system worked.

In the event of a catastrophic incident, “we know it’s there, it works and they will rescue us,” one said.

The NSRS is docked at the Royal Navy’s Faslane submarine base in Scotland.

The system consists of: remotely operated vessel that will find the submarine and clear debris from its access hatch; the piloted miniature submarine, with room for 15 submariners rescued at a time; and a surface based Transfer Under Pressure complex to decompress rescued personnel.

Rapidly connecting the decompression complex, a suite of chambers operated by diving and medical specialists from all three nations, directly to the deck of a ship could save many lives.

The new system allows the decompression complex to connect to most commercial vessels.

In the Baltic Sea trials the Royal Navy’s rescue vehicle –

‘We continually seek to exploit opportunities to shave vital hours off any rescue’

called Nemo – conducted seven dives and proved its ability to dock with a Swedish submarine.

A Royal Navy source said: “We continually seek to exploit opportunities to shave vital hours off any rescue”.

Although NSRS is owned by Britain, France and Norway, Cdr Richard Cragg, the head of the NSRS team, said it would be made available to assist other Nato nations in the event of an incident.