Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

ISMERLO? What's An "ISMERLO"?

Why, it's the International SubMarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office, located in Norfolk. Here's a good article on what happened at the watch desk this weekend; looks like they were plenty busy. (Coordination is done through this NIPR site; you need to have a password to really get very deep into it, though... and don't bother trying to register through this page, 'cause it won't work.)

“One of the Norwegian guys who had the watch activated an alert on the ISMERLO, which put into effect the process of getting things rolling,”...
"It is the international hub for information and coordination on submarine rescue. When a submarine runs into trouble, the Norfolk rescue operation can post the word quickly on the Internet, find a system capable of rescuing the submarine and coordinate a rescue effort, according to Navy officials.
“It was quickly joined by a lot of the countries – Japan, Italy, France, the U.K., Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and many others,” Orr said. “So very quickly you had a synergy of experts from around the world looking at this problem and the best possible options to have the outcome we ended up having.”
"The Norfolk rescue operation had tested itself in mock rescue drills off the coast of Italy as late as June, with Russia taking part. It also has held several joint conferences with the three dozen participants, including 14 that are non-NATO, but had never been asked until now to coordinate an actual submarine rescue response."


The article goes on to say that Sweden and France, among others, had offered help, and a Shell Oil tanker had changed course to render assistance if needed. It sounds like the recent experience gained during the Sorbet Royal 2005 exercise really paid off.

Also on the ISMERLO web site is a good overview of submarine rescue capabilities of many countries.

Going deep...

5 Comments:

Blogger Vigilis said...

Bubblehead, that is an interesting post. Tell me, do newer subs still bear the FWD and AFT rescue buoy plaques from the subsafe program after Thresher sunk? I fso, what do they state now. (Used to be 7 or 8 lines of English, including subs name, translated below into French). If the plaque went out of usage, when and why?

8/09/2005 8:19 PM

 
Blogger Bubblehead said...

We didn't have them on any of my three boats, so they seem to have gone out of style before 1990. Anyone else out there have any info?

8/09/2005 8:27 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"NB REMORA is rumored to stand for:

Really Excellent Method Of Rescuing Australians"

LOL!

8/10/2005 4:15 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, REMORA does stand for a "Really Excellent Method Of Rescuing Australians" I heard it directly from the company that built it. Thats just their sense of humor. LOL

8/15/2005 8:21 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

US boats don't have the rescue buoys many non-US boats still do UK, Italy, most Russian built and others. US boats now have a special Submarine Electronic Position Indicating Buoy (SEPIRB) similar to epirbs on all ships over ~25ft that go to sea except you can launch from up to crush bepth. Buoy comes up takes a GPS posit and send back to COMSUBLANT/COMSUBPAC including special serial so you know which boat it is.

10/03/2007 7:25 PM

 

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