The ''LR5'' is a crewed

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

which was used by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

until 2009 when it was leased to support the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

. It is designed for retrieving sailors from stranded submarines and is capable of rescuing 16 at a time. The Royal Navy now has the use of the

NATO Submarine Rescue System The NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) is a tri-national project to develop an international submarine rescue system. The system provides a rescue capability primarily to the partner nations of France, Norway and the United Kingdom, but also to ...

Use

Only two crew members are needed for the use of the LR5 but in normal conditions, usually three crew members are used — the pilot, the co-pilot, and the system operator. For the operating conditions, the LR5 is able to operate in seastate conditions of 5 m maximum and its safe operating depth is limited to 500 m. Eight trips can be done with the LR5 before battery recharge is needed, which makes the LR5 able to save 120 sailors on one full charge of eight trips. The LR5 submersible is fitted with an integrated navigation and tracking outfit. This system, developed by Kongsberg Simrad, integrates the surface and subsea navigation data.

History

The LR5 submersible was used by the

from 1978 to 2009. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the British Defense Ministry contracted with

Global Crossing Global Crossing was a telecommunications company that provided computer networking services and operated a tier 1 carrier. It maintained a large backbone network and offered peering, virtual private networks, leased lines, audio and video confer ...

, a company with a marine underwater cable business, to maintain and operate the LR5. Global Crossing used the device in their cable business, was also required to keep it ready to respond to emergencies. Britain activated this agreement to help in the unsuccessful rescue of the crew of the Russian nuclear submarine ''

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

''. Global Crossing flew the LR5, and support vessels and crew, to the rescue site. Since June 2009, it is used by The

References

External links

Specifications at Jane's Naval ForcesSpecifications at Naval Technology
Deep-submergence rescue vehicles Submarines of the Royal Navy Submarines of the Royal Australian Navy Submarines of Australia Lifeboats {{UK-mil-submarine-stub

Use

History

See also

References

External links