Oxygen Delivery for Distressed Submarine Survivors

The need for distressed submarine rescue occurs rarely, but when there is a need it is critically important that the Navy have tools and capabilities ready to support rescue operations. In a typical distressed submarine scenario, the internal pressure within the submarine will elevate. This means that the crewmembers are saturated at a nitrogen partial pressure significantly above the surface pressure and would be at significant risk for decompression sickness if they were rapidly rescued to the surface. The Navy has established capabilities to transfer survivors from a disabled submarine to decompression chambers on the surface, but decompression times can be long, and the capacity of pressurized rescue vehicles and chambers is limited, which could limit the ability to safely rescue all survivors in some scenarios. This topic seeks an oxygen delivery and monitoring system capable of delivering elevated oxygen partial pressure to survivors during rescue. This capability would decrease decompression time and allow survivors to be rescued more efficiently. We propose to adapt Creare technology originally developed for an aviation rebreather for the current topic. We will produce a simple rebreather capable of maintaining and monitoring elevated oxygen partial pressure using oxygen supplied by the vehicle during rescue.