Submarine Rescue Systems 1973 - present day

jfdglobal.com 1973. Origins

Over 40 years ago a coordinated, multinational rescue effort culminated in the recovery of Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson from their Pisces III . After more than 76-hours trapped on the seabed, and with fewer than 20 minutes of life support remaining, their rescue was the first of its kind and, at 480 metres, remains the deepest ever performed.

Roger Chapman would go on to The operational doctrines developed Superior manoeuvrability and the ability dedicate his life to the safety of those in these formative years underpin for a pilot to have ‘eyes-on’ his subject, who spend their lives subsea by manned submersible operations today. remain two of the key benefits that founding Rumic, the company that Indeed, many of those early pioneers make this free-swimming submersible would eventually become JFD. have played important roles in the design the world’s preferred method of development of every submarine submarine rescue. In the years that followed, Roger and rescue system since. the team he formed would transform Only a few technological challenges the humble manned submersible from It was during this era of rapid would need to be overcome in order an unconventional tool for exploration, advancement, trials and failures, to transform these into into today’s preferred method for that the benefits of free-swimming what we would recognise today as a submarine rescue. submersibles over their tethered Submarine Rescue Vehicle (SRV). counterparts was proven. The manned submersibles of today owe their existence to the North Sea oil industry which drove their adoption as a means of exploration.

2 | Origins First Generation

First Generation Submarine Rescue Systems were designed around the fundamental principles introduced by those early manned, free-swimming submersible operators.

Over the course of the following 20 The final piece of the puzzle - the ability Many features and technologies found years, a series of technological barriers for a submarine rescue system to be on these early craft can be identified in would be overcome, and the submarine rapidly, reliably mobilised to a remote refined, revised or re-designed versions rescue vehicle as we know it, would port, using commercial and military on today’s submarine rescue systems. cement its place in the world. aircraft - would ensure these new systems could respond to a submarine The single lift point common to The conversion of LR5’s fibreglass hull emergency anywhere on the planet. modern day SRVs is a dramatic into a fully TUP capable chamber was The submersible rescue vehicle, LR5, example of the ongoing effort to the first major technological advance began life as a diver lock-out-vehicle. optimise and simplify every aspect that would define the era and provide It wasn’t until she was converted from of submarine rescue. the benchmark for all systems that would GRP to steel that submarine rescue eventually follow. Launch and Recovery became truly viable. Joy stick controls, touch screen using A-Frames and divers became technology and digital gauges used commonplace. Battery technology The steel hull and mating skirt enabled, today all trace their origins to these and through-water communications for the first time, the transfer of personnel early systems. improvements made it possible to from a disabled submarine (DISSUB) operate the submersible for extended into the rescue chamber at elevated First Generation rescue systems, periods of time, ultimately enabling the . such as the JFSRS currently serving modern day rescue cycle. in Australia, would change and adapt Rescuees could now be transferred as technology, understanding and to surface facilities to requirements evolved. Continuous receive hyperbaric treatment and,