JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM – Approximately 50 submarine officers and civilian contractors from seven nations attended a Rim of the Pacific 2016 submarine rescue symposium hosted at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, July 9.
The symposium offered those in attendance an opportunity to strategize how different nations can work together in the event of a submarine accident or casualty.
“We need to be able to come together as nations if ever there is a disabled submarine, because you only have a short amount of time to perform a submarine rescue,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Doney, deputy commander of Submarine Squadron 11 based in San Diego. “Events like this symposium bring us together ahead of time to discuss issues related to submarine rescue. It’s very important we do this now and not just when there’s a disabled submarine out there.”
Doney said modern submarine accidents like the K-141 Kursk Russian submarine disaster in August 2000, which was lost with all hands on board in the Barents Sea, have placed a heightened emphasis on nations working together to aid in search and rescues of submarine accidents.
During the symposium, a special emphasis was placed on alerting and mobilizing rescue plans in the event of a downed submarine. It also included an extensive walkthrough of the U.S. submarine search and rescue manual, allowing attendees the opportunity to discuss and get clarification on procedures performed differently within their own submarine communities.
“The reason we’re here is to learn about each other and build relationships across the submarine communities,” said Royal Australian Navy Cmdr. Ken Marr. “Depending on where a disabled submarine is, we have to look for what are the best resources, and that often requires coordination across many nations to get the resources we need for a rescue.”
Twenty-six nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971.