• Defence

Life-saving rescue partnership

JFD Australia has secured a $A70 million (£35 million) contract to continue to supply its world-leading submarine rescue system to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for at least the next four years, which maintains JFD’s position as a world leader in submarine rescue.

The JFD team has been working in close partnership with RAN for more than a decade, providing this critically important undersea combat support system.

In Australia, submarine rescue involves sending a smaller or ‘mini’ piloted submarine to a disabled submarine to rescue the crew on board and transfer them safely under pressure to the ocean’s surface where they are able to receive potentially life-saving decompression treatment in a specially-designed hyperbaric equipment suite.

‘Keeping submariners and other defence force personnel safe has been, and will always be, JFD’s highest priority,’

says Toff Idrus, managing director, JFD Australia (and a former submariner).

‘With our submarine rescue service being one of only four air transportable systems in the world, we are focused on saving lives and we look forward to continuing to be a reliable partner for the RAN through the ongoing delivery of this proven submarine escape and rescue service.’

This contract extension will create at least four full-time defence industry jobs bringing to 10 the number of new positions JFD has created in the past six months. This extension will also see an increased focus in involving more local West Australian industry particularly in the specialist area of operating the system’s new hyperbaric treatment chambers.

Further, the contract also guarantees the continued employment of the workforce of up to 60, including highly skilled specialist engineers and tradespeople at JFD’s Australian headquarters at Bibra Lake in Perth who ensure that the submarine rescue system is ‘rescue ready’ and on standby to respond to a submarine emergency anywhere in the world.