The sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk with the loss of more than 100 lives, has provided an unexpected tasking spin-off for the RAN's Submarine Escape Training Facility at Fleet Base West.

The facility's 14-member staff has begun training US Navy submariners to escape from a downed submarine rather than wait to be rescued by a submersible sent to the scene.

The first nine US sailors, members of the ship's company of the visiting nuclear submarine USS Asheville underwent the two-day escape course late last year.

They were followed by 11 members of the Singaporean Navy.

Central to the facility and its training is a 20-metre high steel tower filled with 470,000 litres of water; the only one in the Southern Hemisphere.

Initial training sees students enter the nine-metre lock with an instructor, the lock charged with water and the students then sent into the main water column where he or she, purges their lungs and swims to the surface.

The second phase sees the student don a head-to-toe escape suit.

Entering the 20-metre depth lock an internal vest is inflated with an air line as well as the hooded area of the suit.

With the suit inflated, the air line disconnected and the student breathing the air trapped within the hood, he is released into the main chamber, attached to a safety line and with instructor supervision, sent to the surface.

Recompression chambers at the foot and head of the tower, along with doctors and medics, are ready in case a student has trouble.

The facility is headed by LEUT Ross Halsall and CPO Stephen McLaren.

CPO McLaren, a former Oberon class submariner, and now the chief instructor, told Navy News "The RAN has always trained its submariners to escape from a submarine should the need arise.

"We trained those serving on the O-boats, now we are training those who serve in the new Collins class vessels.

"As a result of the sinking of the Kursk the US Navy had a change of policy.

"Originally the USN trained its submariners to await rescue from an arriving rescue submersible.

"The US does not have any water towers such as we have here at Stirling. They now plan to build them."

CPO McLaren said the US Navy was also working to strengthen the deck around the neck of the escape tubes on its submarines so they could receive the collars of rescue submersibles such as the Remora which Australia is using.

By Graham Davis