Submarine Rescue Group Train in Gibraltar

During the past week the Royal Navy's Submarine Parachute Assistance Group (SPAG), whose remit involves deploying a team of people with escape and rescue knowledge to the scene of a submarine in distress, has been training off Gibraltar.>> During the training 40 specialists, including three doctors, four medics and members of the Submarine Escape Training Tank, used a 'floating village' of 25-man life rafts to rescue various 'casualties', including the Commander of British Forces in Gibraltar, Commodore Matt Parr, from an imaginary submarine.>> The aim was to test the the SPAG's ability to set up the 'floating village', to triage and treat the casualties, and to establish Command and Control procedures with headquarters in the UK. In a previous exercise which took place in 2007, the Group practised the other half of their job - parachuting into the sea with all the necessary equipment.>> The Group's leader, Commander Charlie Neve, said:>> "Gibraltar is ideal for this kind of training. The weather is generally good, the water temperature is ideal, we get away from our home base for team building and there is a military headquarters close at hand.>> "As long as we are sending people to sea in submarines and fitting submarines with escape hatches (which everyone does), then we need a system to retrieve people from the water and take them to a safe environment. The process only ends when the rescued submariners are back at home with their loved ones.">> Whilst the SPAG is unique, many other countries have some expertise in this field.