In an effort to emerge as a centre of regional excellence for Submarine Rescue Services, the chief of the Indian Navy Admiral Sunil Lanba will be commissioning Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV) in the Navy. The DSRV along with associated equipment, will enhance the capability of the Indian Navy as a centre of regional excellence for Submarine Rescue Services.

According to the Indian Navy’s official spokesperson Capt DK Sharma, “The Navy Chief will be commissioning the vessel at a ceremony in Mumbai and will be dedicating it to the nation.”

The second DSRV will be operationalised at Visakhapatnam in March, 2019.

According to the Naval Chief Adm Lanba, “This significant capability has placed us in a select league of navies capable of providing submarine search and rescue in the Indian Ocean Region.”

The DSRV has the capability to rescue personnel from a distressed submarine (DISSUB) up to a depth of 650 metre and it is the latest in terms of technology and capabilities.

The vessel has been designed and supplied to meet unique requirements of the Indian Navy’s submarines by M/s James Fishes Defence, UK.

So far the Indian Navy has ordered two systems which shall be based on the West and East Coast respectively to provide redundancy, high operational availability and early response to deal with a submarine contingency.

The DSRV has side scan sonar for locating the position of the submarine in distress at sea, providing immediate relief by way of posting Emergency Life Support Containers with the help of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and thereafter rescuing the crew of the submarine using the DSRV itself.

In a submarine accident, pace of response is most crucial to safety of life. To ensure early mobilisation, the system has been procured in a flyaway configuration which permits rapid transportation of the rescue system from the base to the exact location of the distressed submarine by transportation using air/land/sea vessels.

According to the Indian Navy, the rescue system has recently undergone extensive sea trials wherein many records have been set. As has been recently reported, DSRV dived to over 666 metre, the Remote Operations Vehicle (ROV) dived to 750 metre and the Side Scan Sonar dived to 650 metre.

Simulating the submarine rescue, during trial live undersea mating with different types of submarines along with transfer of personnel from submarine to DSRV has also been achieved.

This latest technology has put India amongst the select group of nations which have this unique capability and now the navy is in a position to not only provide rescue cover to its own submarines but also to other friendly nations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond.