ANEP-86 submarine survival and escape standards

What it is

ANEP/MNEP-86 is a NATO Allied/Multinational Naval Engineering Publication covering three distinct subjects under one cover: the physiological and environmental conditions inside a distressed submarine (DISSUB) before escape or rescue, the minimum functional requirements for Submarine Escape and Surface Survival Personnel Equipment (SESSPE), and the medical fitness criteria for candidates attending a submarine escape training tank (SET). Nations record their agreement to use it in STANAG 1476; ANEP-86 itself supplies the technical and medical detail, stating its purpose as identifying and, where possible, quantifying the factors that affect survival "in terms of minimum/maximum acceptable levels" (clause 1.1).

Every figure below carries the clause of the document it comes from, and several are explicitly qualified in the text as unproven or provisional. None of it is guidance: ANEP-86 itself is the authority on the numbers it publishes, and escape and rescue practice is set by each navy's own procedures, not by this page.

DISSUB survival: pressure and atmosphere

Annex 1.A works through what past incidents and laboratory studies show about surviving inside a distressed submarine. On internal pressure, it records that exposure "of 1.7 bar or above for a period of time" creates a decompression obligation once survivors are rescued (clause 1.A.1.1), and that survival "for up to 1 week at an internal pressure of around 5 bar is considered possible", immediately adding that "it should be noted that this has never been proven scientifically" (clause 1.A.1.1). On the DISSUB atmosphere, it sets out the physiological effects and concentration thresholds for oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and chlorine, each in its own table, and states the figures that "should be used in the calculation of life support stores requirements": an oxygen usage figure of "27 litres/man/hour at STP" (clause 1.A.2.1.b) and a carbon dioxide production figure of "23 litres/man/hour at STP" (clause 1.A.2.2.a). On carbon monoxide the text is explicit about the limits of its own advice, calling it "at best, very rudimentary" (clause 1.A.2.3.11). It also states minimum stores-planning figures for hydration and nutrition: a fluid intake of "1 litre per day per man" and a calorific intake of "1250kcal per day per man" (clause 1.A.3.19). For procedure beyond these physiological limits, ANEP-86 points to A/MTP-57, the Submarine Search and Rescue Manual.

Escape and survival equipment (SESSPE)

Chapter 2 states: "This chapter defines the minimum requirements for SESSPE to enable a submarine escapee to make a safe ascent from a DISSUB and survive on the surface pending rescue" (clause 2.1), addressed to whoever designs and supplies that equipment. The requirements are functional: adequate buoyancy, stability and wave-splash protection; a design that lets the wearer vomit without aspiration; seals at the wrist and face or neck; sufficient insulation; suitable location aids; and "means of minimizing fluid accumulation within the SESSPE due to urine production, both for men and women" (clause 2.2.f). Under Details, the suit must be usable "within 5 minutes of withdrawal from storage" and "functionally safe to the maximum escape depth that a human body can handle" (clause 2.3), and where SESSPE carries a life raft, that raft's "maximum inflation time to be no longer than 90 seconds" applies, with a manual secondary inflation system fitted (clause 2.3).

Medical fitness for submarine escape training

Chapter 3 states: "The requirements cover training in submarine escape training tank (SET), but not escape training from a submerged submarine" (clause 3.2.a). It splits responsibility between the host nation running the training, which "holds overall responsibility for the safety of the SET training" (clause 3.2.c), and the client nation sending the candidate, whose initial fitness assessment is subject to the host nation medical authority's right to re-assess and disqualify (clause 3.2.d). Annex 3.A sets the minimum medical examination: history, clinical examination, and investigations including spirometry, audiometry, a dental exam and a chest X-ray. Annex 3.B specifies the medical certificate itself, including its "period of validity (3 months maximum)" (clause 3.B.3) and a requirement that it be signed in person by the examining physician. Annex 3.C sets pass/fail guidance across body systems, from dermatological and respiratory conditions to mental health and dental standards, each with its own disqualifying and referral criteria.

What it does not cover

ANEP-86 sets no procedure for conducting an actual escape or rescue; that is A/MTP-57's subject. It names no certification body, notified body or accredited scheme for organisations or products, only the individual candidate's medical certificate described in Chapter 3. And it is candid about its own limits: several of its figures are flagged in the text as unproven, provisional, or, in the case of carbon monoxide advice, "at best, very rudimentary" (clause 1.A.2.3.11).

ANEP-86 is published by NATO and listed free of charge in the NATO Standardization Document Database. NATO's documents are not sold by ComplyTrain and we host no copies of them.