Sorbet Royal 2005 Submarine Rescue Exercise

Today was the last day of the largest combined international submarine rescue exercise to date.

14 NATO members and partners participated with a total of 27 countries present. Three serials were completed off the coast of Southern Italy today. The key event today was day two of the Mass casualty exercise with the Dutch submarine HNLMS DOLFIJN and a combination of rescue ships.

A 2.5 Knot Southerly Sea Current was present however the weather remained excellent and serials went ahead as per usual.

The following types of serial were perfmored,

SURVEYEX – The approach and survey of distressed submarine by divers.

MATEX – The mating and de-mating of a submarine rescue chamber with a distressed submarine

RESCUEX – The rescue of personnel from a distressed submarine

PODEX – The posting of a POD to resupply essential life support stores by passing the POD through either an escape trunk or torpedo tube.

VENTEX – The ventilation of a distressed submarine from the surface through a salvage air system

SPAGEX – The Submarine Parachute Assistance Group exercise

MEDEX – Medical assistance exercise

COORDEX – Choreographed process of rescuing personnel from a distressed submarine with two or more assets.

The first exercise carried out today was that involving the UK Vessel of Opportunity (VOO) Motor Vessel (MV) FENNICA and the Italian Ship ANTEO. They used the LR5 and the SRV300 in combination to rescue personnel from HNLMS DOLFIJN. The DOLFIJN was bottomed in 72 metres of water at 0600B on the 29 JUN 05. She finally surfaced after thirty one and a half hours at 1328B 30 JUN 05.

75 simulated casualties were transported from HNLMS DOLFIJN by the MV FENNICA and the ITS ANTEO. This was achieved by making four runs in the SRV300 with a total of 36 personnel and four runs by the LR5 with a total of 39 personnel being transferred.

Also today, the US ship GRASP, the French ship AILETTE and the French ship PLUTON conducted a coordinated Advanced Diving Suit (ADS) operations pierside at Taranto Naval Base. The operation took a total of three hours and 22 minutes to complete at a maximum depth of 10 metres.

The Russian Federation ship SHAKTYOR and the Turkish submarine PREVEZE completed a simulated VENTEX and PODEX in 29.5 metres of water for three and a half hours.

This was the single, most effective and realistic submarine rescue training exercise the 42 doctors have ever participated in. Pushing real world limits with scope and magnitude challenges added the realism necessary to discover normal growing pains. Going through the motions of decompressing 75 people non stop provided a rich set of lessons learned.

We have very willing and qualified people with outstanding "can do" attitudes. It is evident that we need to equip them with more effective hand held communication tools. Trying to communicate with the line officers across the steel boundary of the ship's skin proved ineffective and slowed the progress of the rescue. Neither hand held radios or cell phones proved as effective as anticipated. Next time we need a different approach. Therefore study should be spent on this effort to tie all the participants together on a more effective communications network.

ANTEO's decompression chamber layout is particularly efficient and lent itself to rapidly and effectively moving patients through the chamber network while treating injuries and decompression sickness symptoms. Working the SRV300 and the LR5 in tandem provided effective coordination training and was well worth the coordination overhead. In a real world casualty, multiple systems operating together would significantly lower the time to rescue yet will increase the need to work together.

On the conclusion of our serials we now enter the final phase of the Exercise, data consolidation and analysis. Tomorrow's hot wash up will allow each On-Scene Commander the opportunity to share key findings with the community before we adjourn. The detailed data gathered during the serials will be used to consolidate our lessons learned and frame the objectives of our next exercise. Simply, the results of Sorbet Royal 2005 are superb. I envy them the opportunity to look in depth at the many accomplishments and new Ideas that came to light. Here are a few of the key findings at the Exercise level:

A. First, and most importantly, through all the 69 serials we maintained a 100% safety record. No injuries or significant equipment damage beyond normal wear and tear. This despite an aggressive schedule and demanding serials. You can rightfully be proud of your professionalism.

B. Secondly, we have pushed the engineering and operations envelopes for each of our platforms, learning how to get more from our systems. We have been good stewards of our resources; we have advanced both the art and science of our craft. We can each go home and report significant progress made and a path for continued improvement. Our mass casualty exercise lifted 75 people in a very short period - surpassing the previous record by 150%.

C. Thirdly, we have gained confidence, not only in employing our own systems in isolation but, in working together as an international team, joining one another and leveraging each of our assets for the greater good of all. In the event of an accident, when minutes count, we can be confident we will move together as one to save lives anywhere in the world.

D. Fourthly, the ISMERLO team has provided a rapidly evolving and comprehensive set of tools that facilitate the coordination process giving us a place to stage the early steps of an event, saving critical time while providing the On-Scene Commander with new options that may well be the deciding factor for limiting or eliminating the loss of life during a submarine rescue. We will