Exercise confirms submarine safety

The Royal Australian Navy has successfully completed a complex submarine rescue operation involving the HMAS Stirling-based submarine HMAS Waller off the West Australian coast.

A Department of Defence spokesman said the Black Carillon 2011-1 exercise, which finished on Friday, had started in the middle of May.

Picture: The MV Seahorse Standard and submarine HMAS Waller during the recent safety exercise.

Involving the MV Seahorse Standard as the mothership and the James Fisher submarine rescue service LR5 vehicle, as well as HMAS Waller, the exercise was designed to test and demonstrate the navy’s submarine escape and rescue capability in a realistic scenario.

During the exercise, a requirement of the navy’s submarine safety program, personnel were transferred from a bottomed submarine into the LR5 for transportation to a vessel at the surface.

Thespokesman said the joining of the LR5 rescue vehicle to the submarine at depth required a high level of expertise and proven technology.

Once on the surface, the rescued submariners were taken aboard t h e MV Seahorse Standard where specialised medical teams were ready to carry out simulated scenarios both in the disabled submarine and on the surface.

Submarine Force commander Capt Brett Sampson said the completion of the complex submarine rescue exercise meant submariners could be confident of the navy’s rescue capability.