JFD, RAN successfully conclude Black Carillon

JFD Australia and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have completed the Black Carillon 2018 exercise, which tested all features of the RAN’s submarine rescue system.

The submarine rescue system was tested in a series of real-life scenarios. The exercise incorporated the RAN’s new hyperbaric equipment suite, which entered into service in July 2018, testing the fully integrated submarine rescue capability for the first time. It also covered the entire rescue operation which included mobilisation and preparation, a deep dive mating exercise, aeromedical evacuation, transfer under pressure and decompression, as well as demobilisation of the entire system.

A major element in testing the rescue suite was a continuously run rescue exercise, which aimed to test the complete system from the submersible through the hydraulics bellows into the transfer under pressure chamber where any initial triage of patients could be undertaken. Patients then moved to the new recompression chambers for simulated treatment depending on the symptoms being exhibited. The exercise also involved the launch and recovery of the submersible as in a real DISSUB scenario and necessitated the split manning of all control points of the suite to cover 24 hour operations.