DEEP SUBMERGENCE RESCUE VEHICLE (DSRV)

About:

• Features: DSRV is used to rescue crew members stranded in submarines that get disabled. The DSRV can be operated at a depth of 650 meters and can hold around 15 people. It can operate in extreme sea conditions (upto Sea State 6).
  
  
• Coverage: The DSRV would have a global footprint and can be mobilised from the Naval base at Mumbai to the nearest mobilisation port by air/land or sea to provide rapid rescue to the Submarines in distress.
  
  
• Agencies in-charge: It would be operated and deployed by the crew of Indian Navy's newly formed Submarine Rescue Unit (West) from its base in Mumbai.
  
  
• Background: The Indian Navy in 2016 had commissioned two DSRVs. The second will be deployed at the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.
  
  
• Significance: With this, the Indian Navy joined a select group of naval forces in the world that boasts of this niche submarine rescue capability.
  
  

Need of DSRV:

• The Indian Navy currently operates submarines of the Sindhughosh, Shishumar, Kalvari Classes as well as nuclear powered submarines. The 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. To overcome this capability, gap the Navy has acquired a DSRV.