History was made as NATO Exercise 'Bold Monarch 2008' assembled submarine rescue assets from 14 nations to rehearse life-saving operations from distressed submarines. Richard Scott observed the exercise first-hand. It is now eight years since the loss of a Russian Project 949A 'Oscar II' nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine brought submarine rescue into the full public gaze. Participating in a large-scale Northern Fleet exercise, Kursk suffered a conventional weapon accident in its torpedo compartment forward on 12 August 2008 and sank 100 m to the bottom of the Barents Sea. Over the next days the world watched as attempts were made to rescue any of the Kursk's crew who may have survived the blast but were now entombed inside its pressure hull.The Russian Federation Navy's efforts to dock a rescue vehicle with the submarine met with failure, and it was not until 21 August - nine days later - that divers from Stolt Offshore finally opened the aft escape hatch to find the Kursk flooded, providing grim confirmation that all 118 aboard had died.
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