The Royal New Zealand Navy recently opened an Anzac combat system trainer following the first major milestone of the New Zealand Anzac frigate system upgrade project.
Chief of Navy Rear Admiral John Martin opened the combat system trainer at the Maritime Warfare Training Centre at the Royal New Zealand Navy base in Devonport on February 16, 2017.
“It is wonderful to receive the trainer early which will allow our sailors to be properly prepared when the upgraded ships arrive,” Rear Admiral Martin stated.
The Anzac upgrade project will improve the surveillance, combat and self-defence capabilities of the Anzac frigates to address obsolescence of some of the current systems. This will include a new combat management system, new radars, electronic detection and other above water sensors, the self-defence missile system, decoys against missiles and torpedoes, and an upgrade to the hull-mounted sonar.
“The Anzac combat system trainer provides a generational shift in training capability with a realistic synthetic environment capable of generating high fidelity simulations of real world conditions,” said Rosemary Chapdelaine, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Canada Rotary and Mission Systems, the company in charge of delivering the trainer.
Lockheed Martin Canada’s CMS 330 combat management system was initially developed for Canada’s Department of National Defence and then modified for the Royal New Zealand Navy with Canada’s support.