US Navy to get three littoral combat ship bridge trainers

A joint venture company formed by CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions will be delivering the first three littoral combat ship (LCS) bridge part-task trainers (BPTTs) to the US Navy.

The delivery of the first three trainers by the JV firm – named Xebec – was announced at the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow.

The new LCS BPTTs recently completed factory acceptance testing at CAE’s facility in Florida and will now be packed and shipped to the Navy’s Surface Warfare Schools Command (SWSC) in Newport, Rhode Island.

The SWSC is the Navy’s “Centre of Excellence” for surface warfare where training for officers and sailors who will serve on the Navy’s surface combatants is delivered.

Michael Beard, program manager at US Navy LCS Training Systems, said: “The Navy is focused on navigation and seamanship training and these littoral combat ship simulators will greatly assist in this endeavour. The more training our officers and sailors receive ashore, the better prepared they will be at sea in real-life situations”.

CAE is featuring a video demonstration of the simulators in the Innovation Hub as part of the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow.

Included in the initial delivery to the SWSC in Newport will be two LCS BPTTs for the LCS2 Independence-variant manufactured by General Dynamics, and one LCS BPTT for the LCS1 Freedom-variant manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

The three LCS BPTTs will undergo site acceptance testing once installed in Newport and are expected to be ready for training by the end of April. Xebec is under contract to deliver four additional LCS BPTTs which will be delivered to the littoral combat ship training facilities located in San Diego and Mayport.   

Ray Duquette, president and general manager of CAE USA, added: “The fidelity and flexibility of the littoral combat ship simulators we have developed will allow the Navy to deliver most of the personnel qualification standards training in a simulation-based environment. This means when sailors get to their assigned ship they will be better prepared for the navigation and operational assignments required”.

Mike Durant, Pinnacle’s president and CEO, stated: “We were pleased to establish the Xebec joint venture with CAE and the collaboration has resulted in a very successful littoral combat ship simulator program for the Navy. We look forward to continuing deliveries of the LCS simulators to the Navy and future pursuits with CAE through the Xebec joint venture”.

It is worth noting that the Xebec joint venture between CAE USA and Pinnacle was established under the US Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé program.