Australia, Singapore, S Korea, Japan, the U.S. hold naval exercise

19.08.2010 Joint exercise of Australian, Singaporean, S Korean, Japanese, and the US navies started Wednesday in Singapore under the name of Pacific Reach 2010, reports website of Straits Times. It is going to be the fifth Pacific Reach exercise which is one week long and held with a view to practice cooperation between different navies in search and rescue of distressed submarines.

The Pacific Reach exercise was kicked off in 2000 after shipwreck of Russian SSN Kursk; that tragedy pushed those countries to initiate such exercise. Since that time navies of five countries – the U.S., Japan, Australia, Republic of Korea and Singapore – once in two years practice co-operation in critical situations which can occur in a damaged submarine.

The exercise is subdivided into two phases. During the headquarters phase participants hold drills on shore; the practical phase is conducted in the South China Sea. Onshore stage also implies conducting of medical symposium on problems related to caisson disease, hypothermia, burns, hypoxia, asphyxia, heart accidents, and psychotraumas, i.e. problems which submariners face when a sub is damaged.

In different years naval representatives from Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia, and the UK attended the exercise as observers.