Naval Surface Forces Looking Closely at Warfare Training for Individuals, Watch Teams

https://news.usni.org/2020/01/13/naval-surface-forces-looking-closely-at-warfare-training-for-individuals-watch-teams#more-72654

Naval Surface Forces Looking Closely at Warfare Training for Individuals, Watch Teams

By: Megan Eckstein

January 13, 2020 5:02 PM

The surface navy is taking a serious look at how it trains individuals and watch teams in maritime warfighting skills, taking a similar approach to the recent effort to bolster navigation, shiphandling and seamanship skills, the head of the surface force told USNI News.

Following a string of collisions in the Western Pacific in 2017, the Navy revamped how surface warfare officers were trained to sail their ships. Training at the Surface Warfare Officers School (SWOS) was revamped, new simulators were developed and delivered to the waterfront in San Diego, Calif., and Norfolk, Va., and more at-sea time was set aside to focus on these fundamentals.

Now, said Vice Adm. Richard Brown, the commander of Naval Surface Forces and Naval Surface Force Pacific, that same effort will be applied to maritime warfighting skills.
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On the watch team level, the focus is on fielding new trainers. The Navy has two Combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Trainers, or CIATs, that became operational last year. The San Diego CIAT was used last January for the first time by 40 crew members of USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), and the Norfolk CIAT kicked off last summer by training the crew of the future Delbert Black (DDG-119).
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The CIAT, though, only runs the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system. To train ship crews on other combat systems, and to add capacity, Brown last year directed his office to invest in two On-Demand Trainers, which are trailers with a reconfigurable system inside that can train sailors for high-end maritime warfare on a variety of combat system baselines and configurations.

“It’s the same concept as the CIAT, just on a smaller scale – so watch teams, their ship’s in an availability, the combat system’s being upgraded, it’s torn apart, they don’t have electrical power – they’re able to go down to this trailer, it’s got all the consoles in it, it’s operating in the virtual environment … and the watch teams are able to sit there and fight these high-end fights in the trailer” during times they cannot train aboard their own ship, the vice admiral said.

Brown said he bought two ODT trainers, one for San Diego and one for Norfolk, which just delivered in the last two weeks and were procured with SURFOR resources. But he’s interested in getting at least one trailer for every fleet concentration area, meaning he’d need to buy at least one more each for Mayport, Fla., Everett, Wash., Rota, Spain, and Yokosuka, Japan – something he’ll have to fight for the funds to buy in the coming years. He noted the Navy still needs to buy its third CIAT for Japan, which will be built in conjunction with an integrated navigation, seamanship and shiphandling trainer starting in 2021, so there is still more spending to be done to support this focused effort on improving watch team performance in maritime warfighting skills.

On the individual level, Brown tasked the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center to lead a Maritime Warfare Officer Tactical Training Working Group to ensure the training curriculum for surface warfare officers and enlisted sailors is adequate to support a high-end maritime fight.
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