Long-serving rescue submarine replaced

[unhappycamper]

Long-serving rescue submarine replaced
By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff Writer
Posted : Friday Oct 3, 2008 6:31:16 EDT

A 37-year era came to an end Wednesday when the Navy’s last rescue submarine was taken out of service, replaced by a new system offering greatly improved flexibility.

The Mystic (DSRV 1) was a small, 49-foot-long minisub able to dive nearly a mile beneath the ocean’s surface to rescue sailors trapped in a sunken submarine. It was the first of two submersibles the Navy built following the 1963 loss of the submarine Thresher. The other deep submergence rescue vehicle, Avalon, was inactivated in 2000.

Neither mini-sub had the chance to carry out a real underwater rescue, but just knowing the craft were available improved morale.

“They were there, they would have been capable if they were needed,” said Mickey Garverick, director of the Naval Submarine League and a former submarine commander.

The DSRVs have been replaced by the tongue-twisting Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System’s Rescue Capable System, described by the Navy as a rapidly deployable rescue asset that can be delivered by air or ground, installed on military or commercial vessels of opportunity, and mated to a distressed submarine within 72 hours.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/navy_minisubs_100208/%2e