RESUS – Rescue system for submarines

ArianeGroup’s RESUS rescue system enables submarines to react in the event of an emergency at sea, by generating and injecting large volumes of hot gas into the ballast tanks in order to displace or blow out the water so that they can stabilize their attitude and surface rapidly. For more than 40 years, RESUS has been standard equipment on all German naval submarines, and is also used by numerous other countries.

Boat and crew safety 

The RESUS system offers reliable and rapidly deployable mechanisms to protect against all incidents and emergency situations liable to endanger a submarine and its crew by restoring the boat’s buoyancy.

Autonomous and fast 

This system, designed and manufactured by ArianeGroup at its Trauen site in Germany, functions independently of the other on-board systems and requires no particular mechanical or hydraulic connections. In an emergency, it can be activated manually or automatically as circumstances necessitate.

RESUS is controlled and tested from the submarine’s control room, which is connected by cable to gas generators located in the ballast tanks. When activated, pyrotechnic valves, or igniters, trigger the gas generators and hot gas is injected at very high pressure into the ballast tanks to blow out the water and thus enable the submarine to stabilize its attitude and rapidly rise to the surface.

In addition to general system repair and maintenance services, ArianeGroup offers specific crew training in system operation, and maintenance and inspection methods.

Key figures :

Up to 12

 gas generators depending on submarine size

32 seconds

to empty water from the main ballast tanks