JFD Australia, part of underwater capability specialist JFD and the local provider of the submarine rescue capability for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for the past 15 years, has successfully demonstrated its rescue system during the annual ‘White Carillon’ exercise off the coast of Perth in Western Australia, JFD announced on 14 December 2023.
Over a two-week period around the end of October the system completed a range of simulated rescues using underwater targets in varying depths and conditions to achieve its yearly safety and operational certification.
“This is a critical sovereign capability that JFD supplies, which is why exercises like these are immensely important,” Cathy Falkiner, managing director of JFD Australia, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “Not only do they ensure that Australia’s system receives annual certification and compliance to navy assurance processes, it gives submariners and other defence personnel the peace of mind that, in the event of a submarine in distress, they are in the safest possible hands.”
JFD’s fully integrated rescue system, which has a strong safety track record in all types of water currents and depths, can save submariners from a disabled submarine and transfer them safely to the water’s surface.
Using sonar to locate the submarine, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is deployed to survey the disabled submarine. Tracking devices are deposited and allow a free-swimming Deep Search and Rescue (DSAR) submarine rescue vehicle (SRV) to be launched from a nearby ship to find the disabled submarine as quickly as possible.
The SRV then dives down to ‘mate’ with the submarine’s escape hatch, rescuing and transporting the crew under pressure to the water’s surface and into a state-of-the-art hyperbaric equipment suite that can provide crucial medical treatment.
The system means that the entire crew of a RAN Collins-class submarine can be saved and then given access to care in the JFD Hyperbaric Reception Chamber facility as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Of the six air-transportable submarine rescue systems worldwide, JFD supplies five of them, providing a submarine rescue capability for the navies of Australia, India, Singapore, South Korea and also to NATO navies.
“The time to first rescue is all that matters in a submarine emergency when our sole focus is on saving lives,” said Falkiner. “We are proud to be on standby and ‘rescue ready’ at 12 hours’ notice to respond from our national headquarters at Bibra Lake, south of Perth, with a team of dedicated professionals committed to ensuring the safety of submariners will always be our number one priority.”
As well as delivering JFD Australia’s annual safety and operational certification, the ‘White Carillon’ exercise also saw JFD qualify a number of key personnel:
- two submersible rescue chamber operators;
- one P1 pilot: the lead position in the submersible, which is effectively the command role and retains overall responsibility for the success of the mission from the submersible point of view;
- two P2 pilots, who received further training in progression towards ultimately becoming P1 pilots;
- one operational manager/director: a key command leadership position.
