Page 98 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

98 SEAPOWER SIMULATION & TRAINING
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
“While we can do that to a certain degree it’s an area where we still have ground to make up to actually get into that space, where I’m running a distributed exercise around the world but it actually looks like we’re all together, practicing high-end warfighting on a scale, with real ships’ companies.”
AEGIS COMBAT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
As described in our story about the Lockheed Martin Aegis Combat System on page 58 of this issue, when deliveries of the Hunter-class frigates are complete towards the end of the next decade, Australia stands to have the largest fleet of Aegis-equipped ships outside the US Navy.
While some of the combat system training is done in Australia, Lockheed Martin is contracted to conduct much of it in the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) purchase mechanism.
Included in this is an On Demand Trainer (ODT), which is a containerised training system which fits into a stan- dard 40-ft shipping container and allows
training to be conducted at the point of de-
mand, whether this is on the pier alongside
the ship, or in a dockyard.
lean in, to provide the Australian Government with what- ever the training services they require,” commented Rob Milligan, Acting Director of Lockheed Martin’s Opera- tions and Integrated Warfare Systems division.
PLATFORM SYSTEMS TRAINING CONTRACT
One maritime training opportunity which is out in the market-place however is Navy’s Platforms Systems Train- ing Contract (PSTC), which will deliver a suitably trained workforce to maintain and operate a number of Navy plat- forms, including the Navantia-designed Adelaide-class LHDs, Hobart-class DDGs and Supply-class AORs, and the Huon-class MHCs. The winning tenderer will be required to conduct training on associated systems and equipment on those ships, including shared systems and equipment across other Navy platforms.
A Request For Tender (RFT) was released to industry last year and closed on 22 November. The Commonwealth is looking for an in-service date in Janu- ary 2023 and ADM understands bidders include CAE Australia and KBR (the in-
cumbent in the role).
CAE Defence & Security’s Head of
Strategy & Business Development for the Indo-Pacific region Jeff Perry says his company is looking to provide training
outcomes for Navy that make the best use of courseware and devices, including simulation where practicable.
In the maritime training space CAE won a US$113 mil- lion contract in 2016 to develop a Naval Doctrine Combat Training Centre (NDCTC) for the United Arab Emirates and runs a Naval Warfare Training System in conjunction with the Swedish Navy. More recently, the company has won a contract to supply a bridge trainer for the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program and is working with Lockheed Martin on requirements for the Canadian Sur- face Combat (CSC) vessel which, like the RAN’s Hunter- class frigates, is derived from the UK Type 26 design.
“We’re really focussed on how we can bring our global training expertise and knowledge and ensure it is ready for future needs,” he explains. “Using new technologies like adaptive learning, artificial intelli- gence, data analytics and the latest visuals support- ed by the Unreal gaming engine. CAE uses the term Training Systems Integration, where we look at the training outcomes required for technical mastery and what courseware and training devices by type and quantity needed.
“There’s an innovation process in the Navy’s PSTC program and we will propose innovative ideas and technologies. Together with Navy we will develop and implement new ways of training using simulation where appropriate to implement that training system.” ■
LEFT: Members of the Marine Technician Branch get to interact with the LHD simulator at HMAS Cerberus, Victoria
While the ODT is reconfigurable, stan-
dard US Navy aids include a Synthetic
Combat Operator Trainer (SCOT) – an Ae-
gis Combat Information Centre Emulator –
and a Virtual Operator Trainer (VOT), also known as ‘Aegis in a box’ which contains virtualised tactical coding within a reduced hardware footprint.
In conjunction with some training in the US, Lockheed Martin also provides training in Australia through the Surface Combat Training Systems Training Command (SCSTC) for Aegis technician, weapons systems and ra- dar training.
While the Commonwealth is yet to announce plans to migrate all Aegis training to Australia, the number of plat- forms Navy will have which utilises the combat system is significant. “If asked, Lockheed Martin would very much
“THE NEXT STEP IS MAKING SURE ALL OUR SYSTEMS ARE FULLY-FEDERATED”
DEFENCE