India joined a select league of nations worldwide with the sovereign capability in fly away configuration to search, locate and rescue crew from a disabled submarine, as Admiral Sunil Lanba, the Chief of Naval Staff, formally inducted the Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV) and its associated equipment at the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai on Wednesday.
Speaking at the induction ceremony, Admiral Lanba, the Chief of Naval Staff, who is also the Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, said: “I wish we should not use it, but in case we need to use, the intention is to rescue each and every life".
"The induction of the vehicle has put the Indian Navy into a small league of navies that have an integral submarine rescue capability...It is a red-letter day for the Indian Navy and its submarine arm...we have acquired it after years of focussed effort," Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Mumbai-headquartered Western Naval Command (WNC), said.
The first DSRV's first vessel, inducted on Wednesday, would be based in Mumbai, while another similar one is expected to join the Indian Navy in the next and it will be based in Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of Eastern Naval Command (ENC).
The newly inducted DSRV has a Side Scan Sonar for locating the position of the submarine in distress at sea, providing immediate relief by way of posting Emergency Life Support Containers with the help of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and thereafter rescuing the crew of the submarine using the DSRV itself.
Currently, the Indian Navy currently operates submarines of the Sindhughosh, Shishumar, Kalvari Classes as well as the nuclear powered submarines. The operating medium and the nature of operations undertaken by submarines expose them to high degree of inherent risk. In such an eventuality, traditional methods of search and rescue at sea are ineffective for a disabled submarine.