<p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/60afda68bee0fc0019d59fb9-1000/1000w_q95 (2).jpg" border="0" alt="USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) together with Royal Australian Navy submarines" data-mce-source="Australian Navy photo/LSIS Richard Cordell" data-mce-caption="USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) together with Royal Australian Navy submarines"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>The US Navy recently conducted a search-and-rescue exercise testing its ability to respond to a sinking submarine. Such situations are rare, but they do happen and can be deadly. Delays and inaction can cost lives, so every second counts.</p><p>The exercise, SMASHEX, was broken down into two scenarios: a missed meeting where the fictitious USS Neversail is a no-show for an expected port visit and an emergency transmission for a submarine in distress, Submarine Forces told Insider.</p><p>The first tested the ability to recognize a problem and mobilize assets to begin the search-and-rescue phase. The second tested the ability to respond to a definitive submarine emergency.</p><p>Lt. Cmdr. Ben Moran, a UK Royal Navy exchange officer assigned to the US Navy's Submarine Force Atlantic, said in a press statement that "if a submarine has an emergency, which leads to the submarine sinking, the window of time to rescue submariners could be short and require quick, decisive actions to achieve a rescue."</p><h2>'Real events from history'</h2><p><img src="https://static3.businessinsider.com/image/60afc5a5bee0fc0019d59ef8-624/HMS_Truculent.jpg" border="0" alt="HMS Truculent" data-mce-source="Royal Navy photo" data-mce-caption="HMS Truculent"></p><p>The Navy press statement on the exercise said that it "utilized real events from history."</p><p>A Submarine Forces spokesperson told Insider that "although submarine disasters are rare in proportion to the number of nations operating submarines, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sinking-indonesian-naval-submarine-worst-submarine-disasters-2021-4">there are many examples from history to draw from</a>."</p><p>The recent US Navy exercise "used elements from the sinking of HMS Truculent," the spokesperson said, referring to an accident in which a British submarine was involved in a disastrous collision with a merchant vessel and 64 people died.</p><p>On January 12, 1950, HMS Truculent, a battle-tested British Royal Navy submarine that sank both German and Japanese vessels during World War II, crashed into the Swedish oil tanker Divina in the Thames Estuary.</p><p>Much of the sub's crew managed to survive the initial crash and escape the distressed submarine, but many who made it out died in the freezing cold.</p><p>Only 15 people survived the tragic accident, which one naval historian, who interviewed the last living survivor of the Truculent, <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/last-survivor-of-hms-truculent-submarine-disaster-recalls-the-stupid-mistake-that-led-to-tragedy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/last-survivor-of-hms-truculent-submarine-disaster-recalls-the-stupid-mistake-that-led-to-tragedy/" data-sk="tooltip_parent">characterized</a> as a "stupid mistake" in 2019.</p><p>The US Navy exercise, which was held last week at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia, also used "experiences of emergency transmissions from submarines in distress" as tools for training, SUBFOR said, without offering specifics.</p><h2>Saving a distressed submarine</h2><p><img src="https://static2.businessinsider.com/image/608383f41d0b54001913dbba-1024/GettyImages-50789155.jpg" border="0" alt="Nuclear-powered submarine the 'USS Thresher' steers through the sea, early 1960s." data-mce-source="Pictorial Parade/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Thresher steers through the sea in the early 1960s."></p><p>There have been a number of horrible submarine accidents throughout history, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/missing-indonesia-submarine-found-broken-into-pieces-deep-in-ocean-2021-4">the most recent of which was the loss of the Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala-402 last month with 53 people on board</a>.</p><p>For the US Navy, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sinking-indonesian-naval-submarine-worst-submarine-disasters-2021-4">one of the worst submarine disasters</a> was the sinking of the USS Thresher in the Atlantic on April 10, 1963, with 129 sailors on board.</p><p>In the aftermath of that deadly accident, the Navy created the SUBSAFE program, a quality assurance effort that aims to ensure that that a distressed submarine can surface after an accident.</p><p>Since the Navy's SUBSAFE program was created just two months after the USS Thresher disaster, the US Navy has only lost one submarine, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/causes-of-mysterious-submarine-disappearances-unclear-50-years-later-2021-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USS Scorpion in 1968 with 99 sailors aboard</a>, but it had not actually been SUBSAFE certified.</p><p>The Navy also has two important submarine rescue capabilities. These include the Submarine Rescue Chamber Flyaway System for rescues down to 850 feet and the Submarine Rescue Diving Recompression System for rescues as deep as 2,000 feet.</p><p>These critical capabilities are overseen by Undersea Rescue Command at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, California, and can be flown out to almost anywhere in the world in 72 to 96 hours.</p><p>Most US Navy submarines have around 7 to 10 days of life support available, Submarine Forces said, but "it is still a race to ensure rescue systems get to the submarine before survivability time runs out."</p><p>Although they are available, these support assets were not mobilized during the recent training event, which was the latest iteration of the annual command-and-control tabletop exercise.</p><p>The US is also works with foreign partners, such as NATO's International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office. It was established in 2003 to support any country with submarines regardless of membership in the alliance.</p><p>"As submariners, we operate in an inherently high-risk environment, making it vital to act quickly and efficiently both as part of a submarine crew or ashore as the support element," Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Submarine Force commander, said in a <a href="https://www.sublant.usff.navy.mil/Press-Room/News-Stories/Article/2631545/submarine-search-and-rescue-exercise-smashex-quick-response-saves-lives-when-se/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a>.</p><p>"We train so that we are decisive, proficient, and ready in any scenario, because bringing our undersea warriors home after every underway is a no fail mission," Caudle added.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-history-deadly-disaster-training-distressed-sinking-submarine-2021-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/life-us-navy-submarine-military-training-armed-forces-2016-9">Everything you've ever wanted to know about life on a US Navy submarine</a></p>
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