''AS-28'' is a of the

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

, which entered service in 1986. It was designed for submarine rescue operations by the

Lazurit Design Bureau The Lazurit Central Design Bureau () is a company based in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. The Lazurit Central Design Bureau is a leading design firm in the field of submarines and submersible technolog ...

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

. It is long, high, and can operate up to a depth of .

Training accident

On 5 August 2005 ''AS-28'', under the command of Lieutenant Vyacheslav Milashevskiy, became entangled with the aerial of a

hydrophone A hydrophone () is a microphone designed for underwater use, for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones contains a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potential when subjected to a pressure change, such as a ...

array off the coast of the

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

, in Berezovaya Bay, southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy,

Kamchatka Oblast Kamchatka Oblast () was, until being incorporated into Kamchatka Krai on July 1, 2007, a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). To the north, it bordered Magadan Oblast and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Koryak Okrug was located in the northern ...

. The aerial, anchored by 60-tonne concrete blocks, snared the propeller of the submarine, and the submarine then sank to the seafloor at a depth of . This was too deep for the ship's complement of seven to leave the submarine and swim to the surface. British rescuers and Russian officials stated that

fishing net A fishing net or fish net is a net (device), net used for fishing. Fishing nets work by serving as an improvised fish trap, and some are indeed rigged as traps (e.g. #Fyke nets, fyke nets). They are usually wide open when deployed (e.g. by cast ...

s also had entangled the vessel.

International appeal

Immediate support was offered by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force The , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...

and the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. The United Kingdom sent a

Scorpio 45 The Scorpio (Submersible Craft for Ocean Repair, Position, Inspection and Observation) is a brand of underwater submersible Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) manufactured by Perry Tritech used by sub-sea industries such as the oil industry for gen ...

remotely operated vehicle A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) or remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a free-swimming submersible craft used to perform underwater observation, inspection and physical tasks such as valve operations, hydraulic functions and other g ...

(ROV) via

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...

cargo aircraft and a team to operate it. The United States sent one unmanned Super Scorpio ROV from

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, airlifted via

C-5 Galaxy The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy intercontinental-rang ...

transport. Each unmanned vehicle was also accompanied by a team to operate it. It was intended that these unmanned rescue vessels, with their robotic arms, would be able to cut the nets or cables that anchored the submarine. The American ROV was assembled on the support ship ''Priz'' although they were not required to get underway as the British Scorpio was able to execute the rescue. A tactical decision by the

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

command team at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

, allowed the British crew to use the limited local resources toward one rescue asset. The British team's efforts resulted in a successful rescue.

Rescue

On 6 August, Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

ordered Russian Minister of Defence

Sergei Ivanov Sergei Borisovich Ivanov (, ; born 31 January 1953) is a Russian senior official and politician who has been serving as the Special Presidential Envoy on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport since 12 August 2016. He h ...

to fly to

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is located in the Far East of the country and lies along the coast of Avacha Bay by the Pacific Ocean, nearby Khalaktyrskoye Lake. As of the 202 ...

to oversee the rescue operation, which was under the command of the Commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Admiral Viktor Fedorov. Russian Admiral Fedorov (Fyodorov) first discussed using

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

to cut the antenna but those tactics were never employed. The Russian oceangoing

tugs A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, such ...

and instead attempted to lift the stricken craft to the surface using underslung cables. This attempt proved futile. Meanwhile, to conserve energy and oxygen, the crew of ''AS-28'' shut down the submarine's non-essential systems (including the heater), donned thermal suits, and rested. The British Scorpio was the only foreign ROV to arrive and be deployed. It successfully cut away the cables which had snagged the submarine while surface ships had retreated a safe distance. On 7 August, all seven sailors were rescued after the cables snaring their submarine were cut by a British ROV. The submarine surfaced at 4:26 p.m. local time and all seven crewmen exited the vessel without assistance with four to six hours of air remaining.

Repercussions

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' reports questions have been raised over how long Russian officials waited to request help. The first exposure of the accident came when the wife of a crewman called a radio station 24 hours later, and the wife of commander Milashevsky claims they were actually stranded Wednesday. ''

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

'' reported that the head of the Navy Vladimir Kuroyedov, may be relieved over this, the ''Kursk'', and other incidents. Another nuclear submarine, the , being towed to the junkyard, sank in 2003 when the pontoon broke loose, with the loss of nine lives. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

also reported that in July, an inter-continental ballistic missile test firing witnessed by Putin failed to launch twice; then exploded soon after launch the next day. Although officials claimed the crew of ''AS-28'' had food and water for five days, they were actually desperately short of water. The story of the submarine's rescue was featured on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

documentary ''Submarine Rescue''. The documentary was subsequently awarded the accolade of "best documentary" by the British Maritime Society. The rescue of ''AS-28'' by Scorpio was also featured as the subject of the tenth episode of the 2007–2008 documentary series '' Critical Situation'', entitled "Running Out of Air".

References

External links