In Taranto, from 30 August to 9 September, the Submarine Flotation Command hosted, for the second consecutive year, the Rescue Forces Course Coordinator (Course Coordinators of Rescue Forces in Submarine Damaged).
The course, the only one of its kind in NATO, responds to an important need of the international community to be ready when called upon to carry out a rescue operation on a damaged submarine in a situation of absolute technical, psychological and media emergency.
The module represented a moment of advanced training in the SMERWG (SubMarine Escape and Rescue Working Group) field for 10 submariners officers, including 2 Italians, from the United States, Spain, Greece, Argentina and Indonesia.
The teaching, conducted jointly by international lecturers from the ISMERLO (International SubMarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office) and by Italian officers, involved detailed topics relating to submarine rescue, hyperbaric medicine, psychology, logistics and media management, all surrounded by informative interventions held by representatives of important partnerships operating in the diving sector such as Drass Galeazzi and the NSRS consortium (Nato Submarine Rescue System).
Visitors and observers also had the opportunity to visit some important Apulian infrastructures such as the military and civil airport of Grottaglie, the Military Hospital Center of Taranto and the Cospas-Sarsat station of the Coast Guard of Bari, each interested, within the scope of their competences, in rescue and rescue activities in the event of an accident involving diving units.
The second edition of the CRF was also enriched by the presence, on 2 September, of the commander of the NATO Underwater Forces (COMSUBNATO), the rear admiral Mack Stephen (US Navy) who, on the occasion of his visit to Taranto at Submarine Flotation Command and aboard the submarine Romeo Romei - accompanied by the commander of the submarines of the MM (MARICOSOM) Rear Admiral Andrea Petroni - he wanted to meet the visitors personally to underline the support of the Atlantic Alliance for this important training initiative that is increasingly establishing itself as a precious moment of confrontation in the international context between the military and civilian submarine rescue specialists.
