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CIAT Trains USS Pinckney (DDG 91)

06 March 2019

From Center for Surface Combat Systems Public Affairs

The Center for Surface Combat Systems' (CSCS) Combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) / Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Trainer (CIAT) trains USS Pinckney (DDG 91).

The Center for Surface Combat Systems’ (CSCS) Combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) / Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Trainer (CIAT), onboard Naval Base San Diego (NBSD), opened its doors for training in December 2018. The following month, CIAT piloted its first IAMD course with USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115). In February, twenty-four members of USS Pinckney’s (DDG 91) combat team piloted the future curriculum for ASW Advanced Warfighting Training (AWT) inside CIAT. 

The current ASW AWT curriculum occurs aboard a ship, requiring the shipboard tactical systems to support synthetic training. The course consists of three days of knowledge topics followed by seven days of scenarios and concludes with a graded performance assessment by Afloat Training Group.  The CIAT training model allows all scenario-based training and assessments to occur within the lab itself.  Moving the scenarios into the CIAT lab provides a high fidelity training venue away from shipboard distractions while de-conflicting with shipboard planned and unplanned maintenance.

“In today’s Navy, we talk a lot about risk,” said Cmdr. Benjamin Oakes, commanding officer, USS Pinckney.  “Risk to mission, risk to training, risk to systems. I think the benefit of CIAT is in providing a controlled environment, using state of the art technology to keep the Sailors focused on the training itself.”

Disembarked from their ship, Sailors were able to walk into CIAT with one focus; tactical training. The watchteams were fully immersed in an accurate training mock-up running the same tactical software as their ship.

CIAT improves the student experience through a robust problem control system. Shipboard scenarios are traditionally managed by instructors running a scenario script without access to ground truth data and with limited tactical information. However, CIAT’s scenario recording and debrief capability allows the problem control team to display and replay watchstander tactical displays showing the perceived tactical situation against scenario ground truth contact information.

“One of the most common problems for shipboard scenarios is not seeing an operator misstep until it’s too late to prevent,” explains Lt. Daniel Walker, CSCS ASW team lead.  “CIAT alleviates this by providing problem control an “over-the-shoulder point of view” for every station, which lets us cue in other instructors early."

The CIAT was designed as an immersive training environment. In addition to the high fidelity modeling of systems and environment, CIAT boasts an impressive debrief capability. Instructors can replay a completed scenario to the watchteam to highlight key points from each scenario.

“We want to maximize how much a team can learn in the limited time we have with them,” explained Lt. Cmdr. Reisheid Dixon, CSCS Det San Diego’s officer in charge.  “CIAT gives us full control of the problem during scenario execution and later in debrief, letting us close those feedback loops and making sure the students walk away with real, relevant lessons learned for each scenario.”

CSCS will continue to bring AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 equipped ships through the CIAT allowing students to train in a highly focused environment.

“It was definitely worth coming to CIAT to train,” said Pinckney’s Senior Chief Sonar Technician (Surface) Edward Glasgow, Senior Shipboard ASW Specialist.  “It took away all of the shipboard distractions. We did not have to deal with watchbills, the shipboard announcing system, or other distractions. We just focused on the training.”

CSCS' mission is to develop and deliver surface ship combat systems training to achieve surface warfare superiority. CSCS headquarters' staff oversees 14 learning sites and detachments, including CSCS Det San Diego, located throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, and Japan and manages and operates a Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) training division in Rota, Spain.  CSCS provides over 538 courses, awards 114 different Navy Enlisted Classifications (NECs), and trains over 38,000 Sailors a year.  CSCS delivers specialized training for Officer and Enlisted Sailors to tactically operate, maintain, and employ shipboard and shore-based weapons, sensors, and command and control systems utilized in today's Navy.

 

For more news from Center for Surface Combat Systems, visit www.navy.mil/.

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