Seas of Change
U.S. NAVY EXPANDS USE OF TECHNOLOGIES TO TRAIN
ITS SURFACE WARRIORS AT SEA AND ASHORE.
The U.S. Navy’s revolution in training truly got underway earlier this decade under the guiding hand of Admiral Vern Clark, former Chief of Naval Operations. This effort laid the foundation for the expanded use of technology in service learning programs.
Evolving training strategies now call for surface warriors to learn and then hone their skills in shore-based schoolhouses and onboard ships anytime and anywhere.
Additionally, an array of enabling capabilities, including embedded training, gaming technology and distributed learning, enables service men and women to complete critical individual and team training skills before they report for duty.
One of the premier examples of technology supports a new ship class, the embryonic Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
BEYOND THE DELIVERED SYSTEM
The Navy is expected to take delivery of its first two LCSs not later than May 2008.
Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support (STS), is the training systems integrator for hull numbers 1 (USS Freedom) the initial ship which Lockheed Martin is building. General Dynamics is constructing hull numbers 2 and 4 based on a second LCS variant design. There is the potential to build over 50 ships for this class.
Lockheed Martin’s ship- and shorebased training infrastructure is quickly taking shape, evident by the delivery this February of the LCS Shore Based Trainer in San Diego. The supporting training systems will allow individuals and teams, as well as mission teams, to train in a common, collective and interactive environment.
“Actually there are three trainers which have been delivered to San Diego, the bridge trainer, the mission control center which supports the combat system, and the readiness control officer station for the engineering officer,” said Lauren McSorley, an STS program manager. Each device will help train an individual watch stander on his or her tasks at that watch station and, when necessary, participate in team training.
“One exciting capability is that while each of the trainers can operate in a standalone mode, we can flip a switch and run them through a combined, collective team scenario,” McSorley pointed out. “While the crew in the combat system would be in a different part of the ship, what you, as a navigator, would see are the impacts of what they were doing. If a missile was launched, you would be able to visually see that missile launch from the LCS on the displays on the bridge. They are playing in the same scenario, in the same environment,” she emphasized.
The shore-based trainers are high-fidelity systems, which will allow the crew to immerse themselves in realistic vignettes.
“These take advantage, as much as reasonable, of the tactical systems which will be onboard the ship. Where we have tactical hardware and software to help provide more realism to the training experience, we have done our best to emulate [what is onboard the ship],” pointed out McSorley.
According to Dave Shikida, an STS maritime business development representative, individuals reporting to the LCS trainer will have completed earlier service- or contractor-provided training.
“This is part of a training continuum, most of which has existed in the current Navy for quite a while,” he said. “The transformation that is happening here is that we are taking advantage of a lot of current Navy training that exists in the pipeline, and the Navy is tailoring it to only what the individual needs. When they show up at the LCS Training Center San Diego, we take them to the tactical and operational levels in a team environment,” emphasized Skikada.
The San Diego training systems are expected to be integrated by May. The initial crew is tentatively scheduled to validate the trainers this summer.
The Lockheed-Martin team will also furnish training systems for onboard use.
“There are onboard trainers which we used as a baseline for the shore-based trainers, which are being delivered with the ship,” revealed Shikada.
LCS-1 and -3 will also have embedded training systems and electronic courseware.
The Navy’s Navigation, Seamanship and Shiphandling Training (NSST) program is another initiative growing larger on the community’s radar horizon.
NSST UPDATE
Kongsberg Maritime Simulation is providing shore-based and shipboard systems for the contract it was awarded in 2005 for the NSST program. The company’s deliverables are three variants of next-generation, high-fidelity simulators to train surface warriors to avoid groundings, at-sea collisions and other incidents.
The program’s version (v)2 system is a large-scale pilothouse.
An array of technologies virtually immerses the prospective shiphandler and the bridge or navigation team in an at-sea scenario.
Seven Barco Simulation projectors provide an out-of-the-window perspective with a 240-degree horizontal field of view (FOV) in each unit. A radar and advanced radar plotting aid console and an electronic chart display and information system–Navy, are representative on-board systems found in a v2 mockup.
By the end of 2007, v2 trainers will be installed at Pearl Harbor, Mayport, Fla., San Diego, Norfolk, Va., and other fleet concentration areas.
A second NSST system, the Bridge Wing Simulator (BWS), is a scaled-down version of the v2 system. The BWS contains five Barco Simulation projectors and a 220-degree horizontal FOV.
This device was designed to teach and hone underway replenishment and other skills conducted from the bridge wing.
The BWSs are fielded in San Diego and Norfolk.
A third Kongsberg system for the NSST contract is the v1 trainer. The device is a PC-based trainer being installed on ships and in fleet concentration areas. The trainer was designed to develop and then hone ship handling skills—with or without an instructor.
The system’s technology suite includes the e-Coach embedded tutoring program. The capability provides instant feedback with corrective action prompts and student performance evaluation during underway replenishment and a variety of other scenarios.
“The feedback provided to the student is based on the practical skills being developed, and predetermined desirable and undesirable outcomes,” said Garland Hardy, president of Lantec Marine Inc., a sub-contractor to Kongsberg on the trainer. “In all cases, the Navy’s Surface Warfare Personnel Qualification Standard is a benchmark, but also for some areas of general navigation and seamanship training such as Rules of the Road and anti-collision procedures, the globally accepted standards set forth by the International Maritime Organization and the Standard for Certification and Training of Watchkeepers are applicable and are utilized.”
Of the 80 v1systems funded, 58 have been delivered, reported Dudley Baker, Kongsberg spokesperson.
BUILDING RHIB SKILLS
The service has increasingly embraced expeditionary missions during the global war on terrorism. An evolving extension of NSST will assist crews of one inshore expeditionary platform—the Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB)—to more safely operate their craft in harm’s way.
“We have an ocean-dynamic model for RHIB training at Little Creek [Va.],” noted Kongsberg’s Baker. This device is a fixed-base system with hydrodynamic and visual models for 7-meter and 11- meter models. The simulator can also be used to train retrieval and launching of the RHIB from the davits of a ship.
In its research and development wing, Kongsberg has an advanced RHIB trainer that provides even more rigorous crew training, Baker said, and includes such options as a motion platform and an M-60 machine gun. Trainers which bolster maintenance and other skills also support the fleet.
MAINTENANCE TRAINERS
Lockheed Martin (LM) Canada has honed its reputation, in part, by providing a wide array of quality, high-fidelity maintenance trainers to navies on both sides of the Atlantic. The company’s Visual Interactive Simulation Training Application (VISTA) is one training solution on the company’s menu of products. VISTA is designed to effectively train maintainers and operators of complex equipment while minimizing or eliminating the need for access to the actual equipment.
“VISTA applications include the free-play models of the target system, high-fidelity models of the tools and test equipment used to diagnose or repair the system, and the training scenarios that allow an individual to learn and/or practice the appropriate maintenance procedures,” said Stan Jacobson, company spokesperson. Jacobson, a retired naval officer and industry veteran, noted that VISTA embraces many tenets of Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL). “The applications are Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 2004-conformant and will communicate with a third-party Learning Management System,” he added.
Two systems which are supported by synthetic equipment trainers with VISTA applications, are the AN/SPY-1F(V) air and surface radar system for the Aegis weapon system, and the AN/SQQ-32 Mod 3 mine-hunting sonar for various ships of the MCM-1 and MH-51 mine warfare classes.
SHARING TRAINING COSTS
LM Canada has also been a proponent and facilitator for the U.S. Navy’s collaboration and sharing of trainer project costs for its weapons systems that are also in service with other navies.
“As an example, the VISTA application for the MK 15 Phalanx Gun Block 1-A and Block 1-B (Baseline 0) were co-funded by the U.S. Navy and Canadian Navy under an innovative contracting methodology wherein each organization awarded LM with separate contracts for ‘half’ the project costs,” pointed out Jacobson.
2007 DEVELOPMENTS
The company has a full slate of new system installations and updates scheduled for this year.
New USN systems installations will support the Link 16 and Common Data Link Management System.
Updates will sustain the AN/URN-25 TACAN and the MK41 Vertical Launch System.
Other service programs use other combinations of technology.
COMBINING TECHNOLOGIES
Sonalysts has been a provider of Navy learning technology since 1984. Some of the company’s state-of-the-art projects involve a mix of applications.
One effort has resulted in the company providing over 500 hours of Interactive Multimedia Instruction (IMI)-Levels II and III courseware for the service commands including the Center for Surface Combat Systems. Sonalysts is converting the Surface Sonar Technician Apprentice School and completing other projects that will provide access to Navy training through the Integrated Learning Environment.
Through the Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research program, Sonalysts is also meeting a requirement to develop and demonstrate a computer-based tool for modeling shipboard aircraft operations for estimating the manning requirements, analyzing safety requirements, and providing crew training.
The firm “has developed a prototype, PC-based modeling tool to support concept analysis, manning and training for shipboard aircraft operations,” said Bob Kurzawa, company spokesperson. He continued, “This tool leverages Sonalysts’ commercial naval simulation engine resident in our Sonalysts Combat Simulation–Dangerous Waters PC-gaming technology, and provides a realistic operational simulation based on modular software architecture.”
The product has been applied to the embryonic DDG1000 destroyer design and includes both the MH-60R helicopter and a vertical take off unmanned aerial vehicle.
One of the company’s capstone projects supports the Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Surface Warfare Tactical Air Controller (ASTAC) Intelligent Training Aid (AITA). The training tool supplies training for prospective shipboard helicopter and P-3 air controllers at training centers in San Diego and Norfolk. This product is noteworthy in that it represents another example of how diverse technologies are combined into a learning strategy.
“AITA employs four components to provide a unique adaptive environment: Sonalysts’ commercial naval simulation engine resident in the Dangerous Waters PC-gaming technology, adaptive interactive multimedia instruction, simulation-based intelligent tutoring and a Learner Model,” pointed out Kurzawa.
Technology also enables service men and women to operate upgraded systems that enter service.
TRAINING FOR UPGRADED SYSTEMS
Hybrid Learning Systems has developed technology-enabled training programs for the SLQ-25A Surface Ship Torpedo System Modernization program. The SLQ-25A NIXIE Modernization Computer Based Training (CBT) program addresses the differences between existing systems and the new upgrade program that is under development by Argon ST, the company’s partner and the manufacturer of the SLQ-25A.
“The NIXIE CBT was built to SCORM 2004 standards to conform to current DoD requirements,” said Jennifer Ann Diamond, Hybrid Learning spokesperson. The firm is working with Argon ST to further develop training programs for the platform and its associated components, she revealed. ♦