Rescue buoy (submarine)
A rescue buoy is a floating marker attached to a submarine by a cable. If the submarine sinks or has a serious accident, the buoy is released to the surface to show rescuers where the submarine is. It may also carry a telephone for direct communication with the crew.
On many Soviet submarines, a large steel buoy painted red and white sat in a deck housing and was easy to spot. They also had two rescue hatches marked with white rings.
The system was designed to release automatically if there was a fire or internal flooding, since manual release could be difficult. But automatic sensors were not always reliable, and buoys could be released by accident. Accidental releases could be dangerous during war or exercises.
There are suggestions that some buoys were welded in place, which could prevent release. This might have contributed to difficulties in locating the wrecks of incidents like the Kursk submarine disaster, where the buoy did not release.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:53 (CET).