NATO Submarine Search and Rescue Exercise Concludes

Dynamic Monarch/Kurtaran 2021, the 11th in a series of NATO sponsored live Submarine Escape and Rescue (SMER) exercises was just held in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Aksaz, Turkey.

The International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office (ISMERLO)-ran exercise is tied to annual Turkish Navy exercise Kurtaran and hosted by Turkish Navy.

Assets and personnel from Italy, Turkey, Canada, Greece, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States also took part in the submarine escape and rescue training scenarios. Qatar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia were present as the observers. Although established by NATO, ISMERLO supports all nations and pursues the involvement of global submarine-operating nations and focused on the humanitarian aspect, which is saving lives at sea.

A submarine was laid over the seabed to represent the sunken submarine and the trainings were followed by locating the lost submarine by search and rescue ships, aircraft and equipment. After establishing a rescue village at sea over the submarine, casualties were transferred to TCG Alemdar, the Search and Rescue Ship where they received first medical aid including re-compression operations and evacuation of the casualties to the hospital ashore from on board.

Trainings regarding providing air to the submarine utilizing remote operated vehicles and divers, placing a rescue chamber over the submarine, and rescuing submarine crew were also conducted.

Assets and personnel participating in the exercise repeated the trainings each time with different assets including Italian Navy submarine ITS Todaro, Turkish Navy Submarines TCG Canakkale and TCG Anafartalar in order to improve interoperability between Allied units.