PHOTO ESSAY

KALININGRAD 2004 INTERNATIONAL EXERCISES

Rafail Zakirov, Assistant Minister (Chief of Aviation), Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General

he towns of Svetlogorsk and Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad region became the field for joint NATORussia emergency relief exercises that took place within the framework of the Partnership for Peace Program on June 22-25, 2004. The exercises aimed at improving the joint crisis response and management mechanism including the international relief request and delivery procedures in response to a terrorist attack on an oil platform in the Baltic Sea, followed by an oil spill and a fire resulting in numerous casualties and an ecological disaster in the adjacent sea area. Colonel-General Gennady Korotkin, Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations

of the Russian Federation, and Carsten Fousboll, NATO Civil Emergency Planning Department Director, commanded the exercises. NATO was represented by the emergency rescue and firefighting units of the Republic of Poland and the Lithuanian Republic. The exercises were monitored by observers from 22 near- and far-abroad countries. The Kaliningrad 2004 exercise comprised three stages. During the first stage that took place beforehand (from June 18 to 22), the Russian participants including the aviation of the Ministry for Emergency Situations prepared for an international emergency relief operation in the Baltic Sea area. The preparatory stage

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comprised work on improving command and control over the assets of the Ministry for Emergency Situations and other coordinating bodies, warning (advising) the neighboring countries, NATO, and the UN on the nature and scope of a terrorist attack, requesting international assistance through NATO and the UN, border crossing and customs control procedures for the international participants. The second stage (June 22) focused on the planning of an international emergency relief operation in the Baltic Sea. The third (practical) stage took place on June 23 at the Baltic Fleets Khmelevka range where the Vyshka-1 oil platform was situated, and involved the participation of Russian specialists together with their Polish and Lithuanian partners. At this stage, the newest airborne and maritime techniques and technologies for S&R, fire-fighting, oil spill liquidation, coastline anti-pollution protection and treatment were demonstrated.
Mobile hospital of the Ministry for Emergency Situations

Colonel-General Gennady Korotkin

On June 24-25, within the framework of the command and staff exercise, a NATO-led discussion on crisis management and international cooperation

in terrorist-caused maritime and land emergencies took place. The practical part of the Kaliningrad 2004 exercise (June 23) developed as follows. According to the scenario, a group of international terrorists seized an oil platform and took hostage 70 specialists. The negotiations failed, and it was decided to take the platform by assault. Two Su-24 frontline bombers executed a false maneuver over the platform while the Special Forces units commenced the hostage rescue operation. A group of divers and special-purpose naval infantry men rushed in, but the terrorists managed to blow up the platform. As a result, a number of hostages including those wounded fell overboard, and a large quantity of oil spilled into the sea. A fire broke out on the platform. The BK-117 S&R helicopter of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations was the first to arrive to the site with

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i-8 rescuing the victims

dropped by the Mi-8 right onto the burning platform. The numerous observers representing the NATO and EAPC countries were genuinely delighted by the professionalism and cohesion of pilots of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. Simultaneously, almost all oil harvesting and sand beach decontamination devices were deployed ashore. Booms were launched at sea, and collector tanks for surface treatment and oil storage were prepared. A group of Polish and Russian ships collected oil in the immediate vicinity of the platform. The spill was pumped away and run through special filters. The applied technologies and devices (mostly the Russian-produced ones) left no doubt that the ecological disaster was neutralized. At the final stage, a mobile hospital was
Boat with rescuers launched from the Be-200ChS

a reconnaissance mission. Its crew was tasked to assess the nature of demolitions, the number of casualties and oil spill spreading direction. Then it disembarked a group of rescuers into the water. They immediately started rendering aid to the casualties the dummies scattered in the sea. Simultaneously, many boats headed for the disaster area to take aboard the remaining casualties and to start the oil spill liquidation works. It was for the first time that the Be-200ChS amphibian, a new aircraft in the inventory of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations, was practically employed for firefighting. The Be-200ChS appeared over the burning platform, made a turn and water-landed right in front of the observers stationed onboard a special-purpose ship of the Baltic Fleet. An inflatable boat with the rescuers was launched through the door. Several minutes later, having taken in the casualties and 12 tons of water into built-in tanks, the Be-200ChS gathered speed and swiftly took off the water before the amazed spectators eyes. In a matter of seconds the mission of extinguishing the fire on the platform was successfully accomplished. The 12-ton water bomb released by the Be-200ChS exactly into the fire epicenter liquidated
Oil harvesting

virtually all of it. Special ships of the LUKoil company and the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations together with a Ka-32 firefighting helicopter equipped with a 5-ton VSU-5 fire-bucket had to extinguish only some isolated fire outbreaks on the platform. In the meantime the rescue operation went on. A Mi-8 launched an inflatable boat with rescuers who picked up and delivered the casualties ashore rendering them first aid en route. Other casualties were rescued from the sea by a Bo-105 helicopter. A rescuer approached the casualties and then hoisted them up by a winch. Some of the wounded were attended by another rescue team that had been

deployed right on the sea shore. The hospital with all necessary equipment and medicaments, as well as the medics themselves had been parachuted from an Il-76TD freighter. Upon completion of the practical part of the exercises, Sergei Shoigu, Head of the Ministry for Emergency Situations, noted the good coordination of all rescue services involved and the high level of accomplishing the most complicated tasks. He recalled that the joint Russia-NATO exercises had already been conducted earlier, in autumn 2002 in Noginsk, a town near Moscow, and expressed hope that such exercises would be conducted in future. Rescuers from all countries are one family, and they always support one another. We have common goals and missions, and I dont think we have any discords. The main thing is to share technologies, experience and all our achievements with our colleagues, said the Minister. After summing up the results on June 25, the Kaliningrad 2004 exercise was over.

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