Submarine Training Goes Deep into Sims

The US Navy’s Pacific Fleet submarines are playing a larger role to help counter China’s expansionism in the South and West China Seas. Against that backdrop, Chuck Weirauch looks at current submariner training.

There has perhaps never been more of a need for qualified submariners in the US Navy. In response, the Navy is turning more toward the use of simulation technology.

“The goal is to get all the boats at home port through the training,” Navy Lieutenant Matthew Carothers, Navigation Department Assistant Operations Officer, told MS&T. “We see a steady improvement of their training as they come though the facility. That relates to the training methods that we employ here, with all our simulators. This gives the crews the real-life experience that they need to increase their knowledge of different skill sets.”

One of the Navy’s newest sims is the Submarine Bridge Trainer (SBT), installed last year at the Trident Training Facilities - TTF - at King’s Bay, Georgia. SBTs were previously installed at three other sub training locations. The training centers feature a plethora of training devices for individual and team training, but the SBT and its accompanying Integrated Ship’s Piloting and Navigation Trainer (ISPAN) are designed for whole-crew training.

“We have a wide variety of trainers here, including the Virtual Submarine Trainer, or VSUB, but the SBT is our most advanced trainer,” Carothers said. “It is important to have the Control Team with you for Team Training, and the SBT and ISPAN together have a vast amount of capabilities to help simulate real-life events. The VSUB is more orientated towards individual Officer of the Deck and lookout training.”

The SBT is a near-life-size mockup of a submarine’s sail area with a realistic top deck, where the bridge crew watch team members can scan a simulated 360-degree horizontal and 70-degree vertical field-of-view that replicates the environment while the boat is surfaced. The trainer allows crews to practice piloting and navigation on the surface, as well as manage surface contacts in real-life scenarios.

An integral component of the SBT is a fully equipped Control Room so that all key watch standers in the Navigation and Piloting Party can all participate in team training exercises. The SBT is interoperable with the ISPAN to enhance the effectiveness of navigation and piloting team training. The four SBTs were constructed by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport Rhode Island.

Like the SBT, the Submarine Multi-Mission Team Trainer (SMMTT) is also at every submarine home port learning site and is designed for whole crew training. The SMMTT is a consolidation of training subsystems, including combat control, navigation, bridge and periscope operations, as well as others. Overall, the SMMTT provides complete tactical training and analysis for frontline deploying submarines in a team setting by integration of the Control Room, Sonar Suite, Fire Control and Electronic Support Measures (ESM). The SMMTT provides the capability to qualify Sailors and crews on their systems before they ever see the inside of a submarine.

Recently the Navy’s New London, Connecticut-based Naval Submarine School staff created a real-world scenario-based simulation training method integrated by the SMMTT simulation attack center. Here, submarine crews can rehearse their tactics and training by fighting against other crews in a real-world scenario simulated battlespace.

“The SMMTT is designed so that our students are able to train as a team, so that the room itself is configured like the space on the submarines they will actually be on,” explained Electronics Technician – Navigation 1st Class (SS) Maddy Martin, Navigation Department Lead Petty Officer. “While in the simulators, they can visualize what is on an actual boat so that they are familiar with the systems that are being used, and how they are configured on the ship.”

According to Martin, boat crews come in to the TTF for a few weeks of training that is conducted every day of the week. “We start at an easier level, and as we go through the week, we increase the complexity of the simulations throughout surface driving. We work closely with the boat, and can tailor the training to individual crew’s needs, such as certain aspects of Rules of the Road, or piloting. We can accommodate to that to help train the boat to get to the level that they need to be.”

Adverse Conditions Lessons

Overall, along with training requirements for operations highlighted as a part of the country’s National Defense Strategy, the TTF instructors have found that the simulators at King’s Bay are also valuable in helping crews to prepare for situations outside of those requirements. This includes lessons learned and adverse conditions the boats may encounter while underway.

“The trainers do add a plethora of extra training capabilities, which is just super-helpful for all the crews coming through here,” Carothers pointed out. “The SBT and the ISPAN just improve the training that we can get to the crews. However, you can’t simulate everything, but we can also employ the trainers to drive home lessons learned. The crews can take those and apply them to real-life situations, and that will bolster the performance of the Fleet.”

Adverse weather and how it affects surface operations is one area that the SLC has been focusing on lately, Martin told MS&T. Some of the scenarios that can be employed with the simulators are bringing supplies on board, or transferring crew members to other boats, he noted.

“We take weather into account for the safety of personnel topside, and also for the safety of the ship if you are in a severe storm,” Martin explained. “One thing that we have done is implement extra training just to help the Fleet focus more on that.”

Another new focus area where the TTF simulators can be employed is teaching operational planning skills and their execution, Carothers said.

“And as stress levels increase, you are going to have to improve your operational planning and performance, or learning what tasks you need to do first, and then what to do next,” he elaborated. “With the simulators that we have now, we are able to have many and realistic events happening at the same time in our scenarios. So you need to know how to operate within the situation at hand, and look ahead to see what to do next. In that way, our trainers help our crews improve their looking-ahead processes.”

Recently all home port training centers were equipped with the PC-based Multipurpose Reconfigurable Training System (MRTS) 3D, which features 30-and 50-inch touchscreens that replicate a wide variety of submarine weapons systems, support equipment and communications systems. Students can interact with the simulated controls projected onto the screens, just as they would with physical systems controls. Some examples of MRTS-3D replicated systems are the Virginia-class Submarine Torpedo Room and Auxiliary Machinery Room, as well as the Los Angeles-class Weapons Launch Console.

Through the applications of MERTS 3D to systems procedures training, the Navy’s goal is to replace costly physical training hardware with virtual replicas. The MRTS 3D trainers were provided by the Undersea Program Directorate at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD).

Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John B. Nowell Jr., far left, participates in a MRTS 3D demo at the Center for Information Warfare Training and Information Warfare Training Comman, Corry Station, Pensacola, Florida. Image credit: US Navy/Damage Controlman Fireman Neo B. Greene III.

Nuclear Boat Training Infrastructure

The US submarine fleet is comprised of 68 nuclear-powered “boats,” including Ohio-class Trident ballistic-missile and cruise missile, as well as Virginia, Los Angeles and Seawolf-class attack submarines. To help meet future threats, the Navy is developing the new Columbia-class of ballistic missile “boomers”.

After graduating from the Navy’s Recruit Training Command’s eight-week “Boot Camp” at Great Lakes, Illinois, new Sailors can volunteer for submarine duty. Only those meeting the highest physical and mental condition requirements will be accepted for enrollment at the Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut.

The eight-week BESS is a part of the Naval Submarine School (NSS), which in turn is a component of the Navy’s Submarine Learning Center (SLC). Just as the Navy’s Boot Camp teaches the fundamental, technical and survival skills and knowledge required for its Sailors, the BESS at Groton provides the same for what the Navy demands for its submariners. As well, there are SLC learning sites at every major US submarine port as well.

Once the new submariners graduate from BESS, they can move on to more advanced levels of training for specific specialties, both individually and as becoming a full crewmember assigned to a boat. All learning sites have been equipped with the most sophisticated simulation-based training devices developed so far. Once qualified and certified for specific specialties, the newly graduated submariners are assigned to their boats.

“What the SLC as a whole is trying to accomplish is a continuum of learning,” said Charles Spirtos, Naval Submarine School’s Command Public Affairs Officer. “So after BESS, Sailors are interacting with SLC training throughout the lifetime of their career. For example, we take crews that are already in the Fleet on our operational boats, and they come in for modernization training for a couple of weeks. This training is designed to further increase their aptitude on their platforms so that they can better serve the needs of the Navy.”

To assure easy access to this continuum of training, a considerable number of the Navy’s submarine trainers are located at the SLC’s learning sites at every US submarine home port.

“Crews assigned to boats at home ports have those trainers right there so that they can get their training done,” Spirtos pointed out. “Unlike with some other learning centers in the Navy, we have a benefit in that we have a formal schoolhouse command in every home port. This helps us maximize the amount of time spent on training, and reduces overhead, as well as increasing efficiency and warfighting readiness.”

The SLC’s Home Port learning sites include TTFs at King’s Bay and at Bangor, Washington as a part of Naval Base Kitsap. They provide advanced and team training for Trident submarine crews. The Submarine Training Facility (STF) at Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego, California provides advanced training for all submarine classes. The Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific trains Pacific Fleet submarine crews, and is located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Another STF is a part of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

“Home of the Submarine Force”

Naval Base New London, where the Navy’s Submarine School and Submarine Learning Center are located, is considered to be the Service’s “Home of the Submarine Force.” It is also the country’s primary East Coast submarine base.

Yet another title: “World’s First Submarine Base”. The port was declared a Naval Yard in 1872. In 1915, the submarine tender Ozark and four submarines were deployed there, with three more boats and a tender added later. Expansion during World War I provided the facilities to support 20 submarines. In 1916, the port was officially declared a Submarine Base, and the Submarine School was established there. The first class of submarine officers graduated that year.

Today, the Submarine School within the SLC provides training for more than 27,000 officers and enlisted sailors a year who have graduated from BESS at New London. Besides the BESS training program, the Submarine School provides a wide variety of courseware that allows Sailors to earn their Ratings. This courseware provides instruction for the majority of crew specialists and technicians required to make up a nuclear boat crew, from Electrician’s Mate (Nuclear) to Information Systems Technician (Submarine) to Sonar Technician (Submarine) to Torpedoman’s Mate. Several levels of Submarine Warfare courses are provided for Navy officers.

The Submarine School also houses some of the Navy’s earliest submarine crew training devices. The most prominent feature of the facility was the 100-foot-high Escape Training Tank, designed to train submarine crew members how to escape from underwater disabled or sunken submarines. It was replaced in 2008 with the 40-foot Submarine Escape Trainer that employs a flooded compression chamber to simulate depth. All crew members must undergo escape training wearing the Submarine Escape and Immersion Equipment (SEIE) full-body suit and one-man life raft.

Some other major training devices employed during BESS training include the motion-based Diving Trainer, where crew members learn how to control, dive and surface a boat. Another is the Damage Control Wet Trainer, where students learn how to control and stop flooding while they are immersed in water shooting into the training chamber. Fire Control trainers are also a major tool employed during BESS training.