History
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| During the last 90 years there have been more than 170
known peacetime submarine losses caused by material failure, operator
error, collision, fire, explosion, or other reasons. They reached
their peak in the 1920's when no less than 26 submarines, world-wide, were
accidentally sunk within nine years.
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| Peacetime accidents nowadays are fortunately few and far
between. Between 1960 and 1980 eight submarines were known to be
lost in Peacetime operations. But the tragic loss of the unfortunate
KURSK is still in everybody's mind.
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There are two main reasons for this reduction in the number
of Submarine losses:
 | Much more attention has been paid to the safety of submarines; |
| NATO has instituted a NATO-wide system for organisation search and
rescue operations for submarines in distress. |
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| Submarine Escape and Rescue is an essential capability for submarine
operating nations. With alliance submarines operating world-wide, in
all probability rescue operations will require multi-national
co-operation, therefore in order to be effective it will be governed by a
set of standards procedures. EXERCISE SORBET ROYAL offers the best
Multi-national opportunity to develop and test rescue requirements.
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| Besides the emergency-procedure systems and the developed
rescue systems, the submarine escape and rescue exercises are a main
pillar in the submarine distress operational system.
Alert and training exercises are conducted in regular intervals in
order to improve the efficiency of personnel and to maintain them at high standard
of readiness.
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