THE ROYAL Navy’s Submarine Escape, Rescue, Abandonment, Survival Training Facility (SMERAS TF) recently welcomed the 5000th Student since opening its doors in 2021.
The state-of-the-art facility was officially opened by the Commodore in Chief Submarines, His Royal Highness Prince William on the 29th of June 2021, and since then has continually trained new and experienced submariners and civilian contractors, in the skills and techniques of surface abandonment, rescue by submersible and tower escape from submarines.
This significant milestone was marked with a visit from Captain Justin Codd, Captain Submarine Training, who presented a certificate to Warrant Officer 1(WO1), Ian Brown, one of the trainers who delivered the course to the 5000th student.
Captain Codd said: “SMERAS is a world class training environment, which is at the forefront of training and qualifying all our submariners. Achieving the training milestone of over five thousand students is testament to the hard work and experience of the instructors. “
The two-day training for Royal Navy Submariners, and one day for Civilian and non-Royal Navy students is a fully immersive training experience, putting the student’s survival skills they have learnt to the test, accumulating with an assessment in the Environmental Tank or as it has been called many times before the ‘Storm in a building’!
WO1 Ian Brown, or Buster, as he is best known, is one of the seventeen highly skilled instructors at SMERAS. Buster was delighted to receive the certificate to mark this important milestone.
“I am proud to be part of the SMERAS team which is an example of how the Royal Navy has modernised its training capabilities to deliver to the submariners of today and to keep delivering well into the future for the submariners of tomorrow.” said Buster.
Submariners are trained to the highest standards to help keep the nation safe. Some of the submariners trained at SMERAS are joining the thousands of people working across the nation day in day out to deliver the Continuous at Sea Deterrent as part of our national endeavour.
As the newest training facility in the Royal Navy, SMERAS has state-of-the-art facilities which never fail to impress. For most students, the Environmental Tank is the highlight of the course with the SMERAS staff able input various Sea State conditions, with wind, rain even thunder and lightning – you could say it’s just a normal day in Faslane.
