The lessons learned from the 21st-century submarine rescue have developed and strengthened the coalition of nations who work together to protect their submariners from the gruesome, prolonged agony of death beneath the waves. They train in the latest and most effective submarine escape and rescue techniques. Equipment and strategies may progress every year, but one thing stays the same: the ruthless ticking of the clock. Whoever is mounting the mission, the time to first rescue remains 72 hours.
GLOSSARY
A-Frame: An A-shaped structure that supports a lifting point high above the deck and over the water, allowing safe deployment of equipment overboard.
ADS: Atmospheric Diving Suit – a human shaped pressure suit to allow divers to descend below 300 metres.
ATC: Air Traffic Control.
C17: Boeing’s C17 Globemaster III is a four-engined cargo aircraft used by various militaries around the world. Wingspan of 51 metres, able to carry over 77 tonnes of cargo. Three crew.
C5: Lockheed’s C-5 Galaxy is one of the world’s largest strategic airliners. With a wingspan of 67.8 metres, it is able to carry over 120 tonnes of cargo. Crew of eight.
ILS: Instrument Landing System, used to guide aircraft in to airports.
ISMERLO: The International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office, based in Norfolk, Virginia.
K-Loader: A specialised truck with a large flat cargo bed that can be raised and lowered. Crucial to the loading of C17 aircraft.
KIL-27: The anchor-handling and buoy-laying Sura-class tug-boat used by the Royal Navy rescue team as their Vessel of Opportunity.
LR5: The UK Submarine Rescue Service’s submersible, in service until 2009. Able to carry 16 rescued submariners.
MOD: The UK’s Ministry of Defence.
NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. A military alliance between 28 western nations.
NDB: Non-Directional Beacon. An outmoded navigation method still fitted as standard in aircraft, but rarely used.
Priz: The class name for the Russian Federation Navy’s rescue submersibles. Used in all fleets and deployed during the Kursk.
ROV: Remotely Operated Vehicle. An underwater robot usually equipped with video, lights, and manipulators.
Scorpio: The type of Remotely Operated Vehicle used by the UK Submarine Rescue Service’s. Rated for work at depths of up to 900m, it is a popular model with offshore oil companies.
SS: SubSunk. The code used by the Royal Navy to indicate the time at which a submarine is known to have sunk.
TTFR: Time To First Rescue. The all important measure of how fast a rescue team can respond after first being alerted.
VOO: Vessel of Opportunity. A ship allocated to a foreign rescue team by the host country.
Zulu: The International time code for Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time. Used in all aviation communications.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Lazurit Design Bureau
Depth rating: 900m
Length: 13m
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Valery Lepetyukha (Валерий Лепетюха), Captain 1st Rank, Commander
Vyacheslav ‘Slava’ Milachevsky (Вячеслав Милашевский), Captain-Lieutenant, pilot
Antoly Popov (Анатолий Попов) – Warrant Officer
Sergey Belozerov (Сергей Белозеров) – Warrant Officer
Alexandr Uybin (Александр Уйбин) – crew member
Alexandr Ivanov (Александр Иванов) – crew member
Gennady Bolonin (Геннадий Полонин) – civilian engineer from the Lazurit Design Bureau, the designers of AS-28
Sergey Ivanov – Defence Minister, Russian Federation
Igor Dygalo – Russian Federation Navy spokesman
Admiral Victor Fyoderov – Russian Federation Navy, Commander of Pacific Fleet
Alexander Kosolapov – Russian Federation Navy, Pacific Fleet spokesman
Captain Viktor Novikov – Captain of rescue vessel Georgy Kozmin (AS-28 mothership)
Dmitriy Podkapayev – Russian Submarine Rescue Service pilot
Boris Doroganov – head of auxiliary ships fleet and Captain of KIL-27
Abul Avdoshin – head of operational department on Naval staff
Vladimir Masorin – Head of the Main Staff of the Navy, acting Navy commander on board command ship
Marina Belozerov – wife of Sergey Belozerov
Tatiana Lepetyukha – wife of Captain LepetyukhaYelena Milachevskaya – wife of Vyacheslav Milachevsky
Guzel Latypova – journalist
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Orion Books.
This eBook first published in 2012 by Orion Books.
Copyright © Orion 2012
The right of Frank Pope to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook ISBN: 978 1 4091 4408 3
Hardback ISBN: 978 1 4091 4406 9
Export Trade Paperback: 978 1 4091 4407 6
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