An Indonesian submarine has gone missing with 53 crew members.
The Indonesian government reported the disappearance of submarine KRI Nanggala during a torpedo live fire exercise earlier today, requesting search and rescue assistance from Singapore and Australia.
An Indonesian Navy spokesperson First Admiral Julius Widjojono announced that Nanggala had failed to report for a post-maneuver brief following a torpedo live fire exercise in the Bali Sea off the coast of Surabaya, about 50 nautical miles north of Bali, an area where the water is reportedly around 700 metres deep.
In the press conference, the Indonesian government announced a search party of warships and specialised divers was being deployed, and revealed they had requested the assistance of the governments of Singapore and Australia to aid in the search. Soon after, the Republic of Singapore Navy submarine support and rescue vessel MV Swift Rescue was reported to have deployed to the Bali Sea.
The KRI Nanggala
The submarine is Cakra classvessel, a class of two Type 209/1300 attack submarines that were bought from Germany and commissioned by the Indonesian Navy in the 1980s. Nanggala is capable of firing four torpedoes simultaneously at four different targets and launching anti-ship missiles such as Exocet or Harpoon. The subs safe diving depth was increased to 257 metres and her top speed was increased from 21 knots to 25 knots as part of her last refit.
Presumably the NATO Submarine Rescue System will have already been in touch…?
Never good to read a story like this, thoughts are with the sailors and their families.
Hope they find them safe and sound and quickly.
I wonder if for rescues you could attach some flexible balloons to the sub with an remote vehicle to help float them up?
Type 209 German submarine, similar to the Argentinian San Juan that went down. Wonder if there’s any sort of design flaw? Hope the crew are found alive and well
I think in both cases the submarines were quite old. That is possibly one of the main factors. Good luck to the rescue teams. I hope any survivors are found quickly.
The sub was from the 80s, but it had been overhauled in 2010 by Daewoo in South Korea, including upgrade to propulsion and combat systems.
It’s just age isnt it? A sub from the 1980s is 40 years old. Has she had all her sea valves and seals checked and replaced?
Iirc, the San Juan was old and heavily modified (been stretched out at some point with an additional section), the modification being thought to be the point of failure, but I could be misremembering.
Hopefully there’s a range vessel or similar to narrow the search area down. Fingers crossed for all onboard.
Water depth is 3x SDD, 40yo hull, I think we need to keep everything crossed and hope MV Swift Rescue gets on scene sooner rather than later.
No idea what DDD/crush depth is on these but if its a hull (and backup) valve that’s gone there might still be hope. Can’t speak for the German ‘steaming bats’ but the pressure hulls on ours have given me a lot of confidence in the past. It is the nightmare though.
Yes, agree that the hull is strong, if any potential flooding can be localised and thus contained, might still be okay.
Then it all depends on the angle shes ay for any rescue attempt. Its still sh*t as you say.
Prayers for every seamen on the boat.
Sad news, it certainly doesn’t look good for all onboard at these depths.
A little more info from the Aussi Media:
Indonesia asks Australia to help search for submarine with 53 on board
Singapore: Indonesia’s military chief says the country has asked the Australian Defence Force to try and help locate a submarine that is missing north of Bali with 53 sailors on board. Contact was lost with the German-built submarine in the early hours of Wednesday morning after it undertook a torpedo training exercise about 100km north of Bali.An oil spill was discovered during aerial surveillance of the area several hours after the vessel disappeared.
Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, the commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that Indonesia had requested assistance from Australia and Singapore in an effort to find the KRI Nanggala-402 submarine, which is feared sunk.
“We are searching,” he said.
Indonesia’s defence ministry said that contact could not be re-established with the submarine after it requested permission to undertake a diving maneourve at 3am local time [6am AEST] on Wednesday. Indonesian media said the navy believed the submarine had descended to a depth of 700 metres, well beneath its capacity.
“A search by other vessels involved in the drilling taskforce was then in action,” the defence ministry said.
“At 7am Western Indonesia Time from aerial observation by the helicopter, it was found that there was an oil spill around the position of the initial diving.”
Indonesian warships have also been sent to the area where the 1400-tonne submarine was last heard from.
The defence ministry said there were 49 crew on the submarine as well as three gunners and its commander.
“The search continues until now by KRI Rigel from Jakarta and KRI Rengan from the Mine Unit by using side scan sonar,” the ministry said
.“Some countries have responded and are ready to provide assistance. Some of them are the Singaporean navy and Australian navy.”
Singapore’s submarine rescue vessel, MV Swift Rescue, was reported to have been dispatched to the waters north of Bali from Changi naval base.
Built in 1979, the KRI Nanggala-402 is one of five submarines in Indonesia’s fleet and had been practising for a torpedo firing drill off the coast of Bali on Thursday.
The vessel is one of two Type 209/1300 submarines owned by the Indonesian navy that began service in 1981 and were refurbished in South Korea a decade ago.
Further to my last a little info on Singapore’s submarine rescue vessel, MV Swift Rescue
MV Swift Rescue Submarine Support and Rescue Vessel (SSRV)MV Swift Rescue is a Submarine Support and Rescue Vessel (SSRV) that is operated by the Singapore Navy. It was built by ST Marine, a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering). The vessel is capable of conducting rescue operations in Sea State 5 conditions. Swift Rescue was launched by the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) in November 2008.
The vessel is equipped with Submarine Escape and Rescue (SMER) capabilities. The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) awarded a $400m Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) contract to ST submarine, through a 20-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme for a comprehensive ship and submarine rescue system and maintenance services, in January 2007.
ST Marine formed a 50:50 joint venture with James Fisher Defence (JFD), in order to execute the project. The joint venture (JV) was named as First Response Marine Pte (FRM). JFD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of James Fisher and Sons.
The rescue system includes a Submarine Rescue Vehicle (SRV) and a Submarine Support and Rescue Vessel (SSRV). The SRV is integrated with SSRV and will be transported to the distressed submarine location.
https://www.naval-technology.com/projects/mv-swift-rescue-submarine-support-rescue-vessel/
I previously worked for James Fisher Defence (now just JFD) for a good few years. Extremely capable subsea operations company. They also operate the Australian SRS and the NATO SRS out of Faslane. If anyone can do it, they can. But if it’s descended to 700m then it’s unlikely I’d say.
God speed to all involved, praying for everyone.
Thanks for the updates Farouk.
When the words torpedo practise are followed by the words submarine missing it is never good; flooding, explosion and or both are on the cards – I do hope not. God speed to the crew.
I really hope the crew are OK.
Particularly after the very sad Argentinian loss previously.
It does make you realise why the UK retires its submarines after a well defined period.
I would imagine that with a much smaller hull and therefore less compartments any major leaks would be much harder to control at depth even when fully closed up. I am assuming that the torpedo room would have to be minimum 2x length of a munition plus handling margin so proportionately quite long for a small sub – tube + mention + inner hatch opening + margin so the propulsion end of the torpedo doesn’t hit the aft bulkhead.
Oh dear. This looks grim.
Max diving depth 251m and yet water depth 700m. If she has gone to the bottom she will have crumbled.
Hopefully she hasn’t gone down.
I know its top secret but I wonder if an astute can even operate at this depth. 700m is pretty deep water.
Sad news, my thoughts are with all onboard and their families.
Their God in their Heaven, give them life. Thoughts.
Time to rally round. But the prospects look bleak.
Bloody dangerous job, every time you set foot in one, peacetime or war. It’s not like driving to SPTA to shoot some rounds down, every time you dive you are in a dangerous, alien environment and every dive is real. Respect and hope these blokes are recovered. Bit far for our submarine rescue people to be involved but I wouldnt be surprise if they are on standby, or even in the air as we speak. Any of you guys who are crazy enough to have been a submariner, update or advise either way, Deep32? Cheers.
Morning mate, like everyone else, keeping my fingers crossed for them.
Good news is there is a safety ship/Torpedo Recovery Vessel on site, as its a torpedo firing a exclusion area will be declared, so, they should know roughly where she is. Recovery vessel from Singapore and Aussie SSPAG enroute, again good news.
Unfortunately at that depth they are not getting out by themselves, so will need a rescue submersible to lift them off.
The fact that they didnt manage to get upto the surface under there own power doesnt bode well, some sort of major flooding has obviously occurred. If they have managed to contain the flooding to a compartment there is always a chance, they have escape stores so should be ok for several days, they will also have means of communicating with surface units, and able to mark their position with smoke/dye markers. Again all helps in locating them.
The issue will be what angle the SM is at, to steep off the vertical and any rescue submersible will have difficulty attaching itself. That and time will be the issues.
Cheers mate, fingers crossed for these lads.
No worries, however, have to say Im not overly optemistic for their chances, its deep water.
Sad news. God bless all the crew wherever they may be.
Last in Indonesia in 2019 – despite the bad wrap it sometimes gets Indonesians in general are very welcoming to westerners.
Sadly, there is still no news.
Not seen anything on TV news about this SUB ,but God bless them.
Indonesian Navy have now confirmed that the SM has sunk in 850m of water, with the loss of the crew. A very sad state for all their families. RIP fellas.
A tragic loss of life.
RIP on Eternal Patrol
Just posted and now seen your post mate. The boat was found in 3 pieces, be curious to see the outcome of the enquiry.
Feel for them, at least they got to ‘don the white woolly pully’.
I see its been confirmed that the boat has been found in 3 pieces, poor buggers.