A detachment of Chinese Navy recently conducted maritime emergency search and rescue drills under complex sea conditions at the South China Sea.
The drills simulated the sinking of a ship carrying supplies. The multi-purpose submarine rescue vessel carried out a thorough search using photoelectric sensors and sonar, and immediately maneuvered above the ship "in distress" after the sonar detected and located its position.
The operator piloted the underwater remote-controlled submersible to dive to the target depth for survey and sampling of the surrounding environment and the posture of the sunken ship. Then the divers entered the ship to search for targets. All the elements of the taskforce worked in coordination and successfully completed the salvage of materials.
"We formed an ad hoc task organization for this exercise. Meanwhile, we were equipped with different equipment modules according to varied tasks. All elements were focused on the rescue system as a whole rather than relying on a single combat team, so as to effectively improve the integrated combat-rescue capability and the peacetime-wartime integration, and ensure that we can always execute the task at any time when a dangerous situation arise," said Jia Chunguang, a member of the emergency rescue detachment.
The naval emergency rescue detachment, affiliated with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, is responsible for such tasks and missions as submarine rescue, deep-sea towing, and underwater rescue and salvage.
PLA Navy emergency rescue detachment conducts drills at South China Sea
