Rear Admiral NIALL KILGOUR UKN,
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Tuesday 28 May 2002, By Lieutenant Jim Sheldrake UKN, Flag Lieutenant to COMSUBEASTLANT
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| Rear Admiral Niall Kilgour UKN, COMSUBEASTLANT and the Officer Conducting the Exercise
(OCE) took time to tour many of the units involved in the Exercise. Exercise Director, Captain Chris Klyne USN and Project Officer, Commander
Uwe Zerull GEN, both from the Admiral’s COMSUBEASTLANT staff at Northwood, gave an update on the Exercise at the Frederikshavn Naval Base and introduced members of the Exercise Staff and Allied Press and Information team.
The Admiral also met the team responsible for producing the NATO and
Danish Sorbet Royal 2002 websites.
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Rear Admiral Kilgour UKN browses the NATO Sorbet Royal 2002 web site
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Rear Admiral Kilgour UKN observes
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Accompanied by Captain Klyne, Rear Admiral Kilgour observed members of the Medical Teams conducting triage exercises at the base and was impressed by the realism of the casualties simulating escapees. Doctors and medics treated casualties from all the participating nations, while the Admiral talked to numerous people about the training they had received over the previous two weeks.
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| Next came the French ship MV Ailette alongside, where the Admiral was briefed on the capabilities of the Atmospheric Diving Suit and witnessed the system in use in the harbour. Rear Admiral Kilgour also met the Steering Committee Chairman of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) who is observing the Exercise. |
Onboard MV Ailette
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In the afternoon the Admiral moved to the Danish ship HDMS Gunnar
Seidenfaden, to view the American Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC), the only system in the world that has been proven in a real submarine rescue, back in the 1930s. Outboard of HDMS Gunnar Seidenfaden was MV Dolores
Chouest, an American ship used as an operating platform for the US Scorpio.
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| This Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is capable of operating down to depths of 5000 feet and the Admiral was shown stunning video of the Scorpio posting a pod of emergency stores to a bottomed Swedish submarine earlier in the exercise. Members of the Deep Submergence Unit from San Diego responsible for both these assets were introduced and explained the contribution they had made to the Exercise, along with the processes used to bring the systems from the West Coast of the United States to Denmark. After bidding farewell to the US team, the Admiral chatted with Canadian divers on the jetty who had been working with the MV Ailette while they prepared equipment for their next task. |
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 At sea on ORP Lech
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Following these visits at the Naval Base, Rear Admiral Kilgour moved swiftly to sea onboard HDMS Havkatten and visited the Polish diving support ship ORP
Lech. The ship has worked with divers from numerous nations and also supported the UK Submarine Parachute Advisory Group
(SPAG) drop. ORP Lech has recently been refitted and a state of the art sonar system enabled the ship to fully participate in the SEARCHEX earlier in the Exercise. |
| Rear Admiral Kilgour went on to host an evening dinner at the Naval Base for the Distinguished Visitors
(DV) attending the Exercise the following day. It was a busy and fascinating day, covering all the units that were not being visited by a Senior Officer during the DV day.
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