CAE/Pinnacle Joint Venture Shipping Three Sims to Newport
At the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow on 9 February, CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions announced their joint venture company, Xebec, will be delivering the first three Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Bridge Part-Task Trainers (BPTTs) to the United States Navy (USN).
The devices recently completed factory acceptance testing and will now be shipped to the Navy’s Surface Warfare Schools Command (SWSC) in Newport, RI – the USN ‘Center of Excellence’ where surface warfare training is delivered.
“The Navy is focused on navigation and seamanship training and these Littoral Combat Ship simulators will greatly assist in this endeavor,” explained Michael Beard, Program Manager, US Navy LCS Training Systems. “The more training our officers and sailors receive ashore, the better prepared they will be at sea in real life situations.”
Included in the initial delivery will be two LCS BPTTs for the LCS2 INDEPENDENCE-variant (General Dynamics), and one for the LCS1 FREEDOM-variant (Lockheed Martin). The three devices 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, to be delivered to LCS training facilities in San Diego, CA and Mayport, FL.
“The fidelity and flexibility of the [LCS] simulators we have developed will allow the Navy to deliver most of the personnel qualification standards training in a simulation-based environment,” stated Ray Duquette, President and General Manager, CAE USA. “This means when sailors get to their assigned ship they will be better prepared for the navigation and operational assignments required.”
The LCS BPTTs are being developed by Xebec, established as a joint venture by the companies under the US Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé programme.
CAE is featuring a video demonstration of the BPTTs in the Innovation Hub at CAE OneWorld, which will be available online for the next month.
