One of great changes in naval and military training has been the widespread use of simulation training. In the early Cold War years the RAN’s use of simulators was largely confined to aircraft simulators, but the surface navy did have rudimentary simulators such as the Seacat dome at HMAS Cerberus and the ASUAT ASW trainer at HMAS Watson. By the early 1980s, however, there was a proliferation in simulation trainers, with one of the most notable being the Bridge Simulator. In this August 1983 article in the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Lieutenant Commander Frank Allica outlines what was in store for bridge training. The bridge simulator and the way its capabilities were embraced by the RAN was to have a profound effect not only on the way officers became qualified as officers of the watch, but how commanding officers trained to berth and unberth their ships and bridge teams work together.
By Lieutenant Commander F. A. Allica RAN*
It is of immense importance that the soldier, high or low, whatever rank he has, should not have to encounter in war those things which, when seen for the first time, set him in astonishment and perplexity, if he has only met with them one single time before, even by that he is halt acquainted with them.
Carl Von Clausewitz
With the acquisition of a ship’s bridge simulator early in 1985, the RAN is entering an exciting new era in its methodology of training. For several years, it has been recognised that it is neither practical, nor cost effective to conduct live training in many training fields. Certainly, the aircraft industry recognised from its inception that simulator training was the most cost effective means to train aircrew and to put a pilot through the most extenuating of emergency procedures at minimal cost and at no risk to personnel.
Tactics and operations room procedures have for many years been exercised and practised in simulated operations rooms which are often a more cost effective and definitive means of training than practical training at sea. Of course, simulation cannot achieve all training objectives and there will always be a need for practical sea training. With the significant and rapid advances in technology in recent years, spiralling costs in weapons systems, associated armament and the sophisticated targets required to simulate today’s threat, it is now more practical and certainly less costly to conduct most missile and gunfire engagements by simulated means. Consequently, there are now a wide range of simulator systems available in a competitive market to prospective users.
A different area of simulation which is breaking into this market is the ship’s bridge simulator. Traditionally, the training of personnel in ship handling, navigation, officer of the watch procedures and ship safety, including rule of the road, has been by practical experience at sea. This system has many short comings, not in the least that the student is not permitted to make any mistakes (the most effective means in the learning process). Any Commanding Officer who aspires to greater things will exercise vigorous control over a trainee in a new and or dangerous environment and often takes over when he considers the situation so merits or is beyond the expertise of the trainee. This of course, is not an unreasonable reaction, but it doesn’t allow for an optimum system of training.
This lack of first hand exposure of a junior officer to ship handling incidents often militates against his gaining any significant experience in manoeuvring a ship in ‘at risk’ situations until he is in command of his own ship. In these days of few sea going commands and appointments, this occurrence is not uncommon and will lead, and perhaps has already led, to an overall lowering of standards. The acquisition of a bridge simulator will obviate intervention by the Commanding Officer and allow trainees to be responsible tor their own actions without the risk of collision grounding or the subsequent board of inquiry and/or courts martial.
The RAN is to a degree, pioneering new ground in its acquisition of a simulator in that we are the first naval (non merchant service) to acquire a simulator of this nature, and some considerable international interest is following the RAN’s development and utilisation of this training resource. Several merchant marine academies have recently acquired or are in the process of acquiring marine simulators (including the Australian Maritime College at Launceston). There have been unsophisticated attempts to develop bridge procedural trainers in the past; however, it is only now, with the advent of modern computer-based technology, that it has been possible to design and produce simulators which realistically reproduce the at sea environment.
A major impediment which had to be overcome in the development of a bridge simulator was in the area of visual simulation. The cues taken by a mariner in handling a ship are about 90% visual. He requires a good, near to all round vision and the ability to correlate the visual scene with his navigational instruments, radar and chart. These exciting visual requirements do not exist to the same degree in other forms of simulation, where more reliance may be made on instrumentation, and the visual scene need only be displayed on one or two channels through a periscope or onto a screen immediately in front of an aircraft’s cockpit as appropriate. As visual presentation is not so important in these simulators, it has been possible to duplicate the required land or seascape on a model board which is photographed by a mobile video camera and projected onto the video screen. Naturally, the production of a model board is expensive and extremely limiting in providing a variety of gaming areas.
Whilst attempts have been made to conduct bridge simulation utilising model boards and video screen presentation, the changing and dynamic nature of the sea environment and the vessels which sail on it cannot be adequately simulated in this form. It was not until the development of the computer-generated imagery that it was possible to build a simulator which could simulate this changing environment on a wide wrap-around screen presentation.
The RAN’s requirement is different to the merchant marine. Ship handling simulators are being acquired by maritime colleges for a multiplicity of reasons, but most of them stem from a desire to train pilots and captains in manoeuvring large tankers, container vessels and similar vessels in confined waters and also to be used as an evaluation and investigative tool in the study of environmental, ergonomic, ship dynamic and other effects on large hulled vessels in various conditions and situations. The RAN main requirement, however, is to train officers in manoeuvring ships at sea in company with other vessels.
The RAN requirement for a bridge simulator arose in 1978 when it became evident that with the trend towards the acquisition of new fleet units with limited accommodation, the paying off of older vessels such as Melbourne and the Darings, that there would be fewer training billets at sea to accommodate Stage 4 seamen officers training for the award of a Full Bridge Watch Keeping Certificate (FBWC). At the same time, an unprecedented number of junior officers were forecast to be in the stream in the early to mid-1980s who would require billets at sea, and an exponential queue of officers awaiting sea billets would develop. A number of measures were taken to keep this queue to a minimum and to date it has failed to materialize to any significant degree Notwithstanding, the acquisition of a simulator will ease the training burden and ensure that young officers proceeding to sea for the award of their FBWC will be considerably more experienced than their present day counterparts. This should lead lo the earlier award of the FBWC and an easing of the fleet training task.
Description
The building, which will be at HMAS Watson on the former site of the Mortar Mk.10, will house all the facilities necessary to support the system such as classrooms, students preparation room, workshops and office accommodation. The simulator will consist of a bridge mock-up, around which will be placed at approximately seven metres radius a circular screen of 250o (125o either side of centre) onto which computer-generated images of sea scenes will be projected. The ship’s bridge will be mounted on a motion platform. Its rear wall is equipped with a large window which will give the instructor a view of the bridge interior and of the sea scenario from his position in the instructor’s station which is directly adjacent to the bridge. To ensure an atmosphere of privacy for the trainees, the view between the bridge and the control room can be closed by means of a blind if an advanced exercise so permits.
At the rear of the control room, there will be an auditorium separated by a soundproof concertina door which will allow instruction to take place prior to the door being opened to view a live exercise if desired. This concept will be useful both in the familiarisation of trainees and to accommodate the large number of visitors who are expected to want to view this unique equipment, especially during the first years of its operation.
The control of the simulator is at the instructor’s control station. Here, the instructor has complete control of its operation. The central processor (Gould 32/27) is at the centre of a network of ten other processors which control the functions of synthetic generation of the colour video, radar generation, bridge and other ship control and instruction functions. The entire scene is computed and displayed just as an observer would see it from the bridge of an actual moving ship. The synthetic scene is projected by eleven video projectors onto the surrounding screen.
The radar simulation provides up to twenty simulated targets and coastline as selected by the instructor, and the radar agrees with the visual scene. Various other controls (or communications and audio are also interfaced with the system and form an integral part of the system, which may be recorded and played back in slow or quick time for debriefing or illustrative purposes.
The bridge is a generic bridge which will be representative of the FFG, DDG and Swan/Torrens class of DE Representative means that it will not resemble any one class; however, by altering the position of key navigation equipment such as the strip repeats or use of bridge or engine room controls it is possible to represent any of these three classes of ship. The bridge will be large enough to accommodate the OOW, a tactical operator, quartermaster and navigator or captain if so desired. The bridge equipment is based on that in actual use in RAN destroyers with all displays, instruments and intercoms. The bridge is mounted on a simple motion base which is capable of pitch and roll to +/-5o and representative vibration.
Four formation ships can be controlled from the formation ship consoles. Each console consists of a graphic display which, centred on one formation ship, shows the geometrical situation of the other ships in company. These ships can be manned by students for manoeuvring and voice communication practice and appear in the visual scene, providing a realistic interaction in game play. Alternatively, if these stations are not manned, the instructor and his assistant can control the other ship models to gain similar training value.
Own ship model and formation ship models behave and handle realistically with ship dynamics computed in the central processor with the aid of an extensive mathematical model based upon RAN ship trials data and practical ship handling information. The own and formation ship models handle realistically and include such dynamics as shallow water effect, windage, ship interaction effects during RAS and many others. In addition, the instructor can apply a variety of machinery breakdowns in order to fully test the student OOW.
The instructor assistant console consists of two identical consoles each equipped with a colour graphics display, a keyboard and rollball. A slave radar is provided between the two positions to monitor the bridge radar. The workload is split between the two positions so that it is possible for one person control for low level exercises, or two man control when in-company ships are introduced into the exercise. The graphic display shows the current exercise situation with important ship data. Communication with the processor takes place largely by responding to prepared questions – the menu technique as it is called.
The instructor will monitor the exercise as it takes place. He uses the graphics display for this purpose which displays all navigational information including the coastline and navigation marks. Own ship, four formation ships and the sixteen other ships move within this tactical display. Past tracks are shown and, in addition, all relevant data is displayed in alpha numeric characters. The instructor can also assess precisely the use that is made of the bridge radar unit by monitoring his radar display.
The simulator is able to simulate all forms of naval activity including operations at sea, in coastal and pilotage waters. Computer-generated scenes of our harbours will be produced in time, and upon these may be superimposed the effects of wind, tidal steam current fog, rain and all the other external factors which affect a ship at sea. Each manoeuvre region is stored in its own set of magnetic disks. In this way, any desired number of manoeuvre regions can be created. The instructor may superimpose the desired environmental conditions, shipping and other factors.
At the end of an exercise, a record is printed out automatically showing the most important exercise data and corresponding times. This is useful for debriefing purposes. The exercise is recorded and reproduced in all detail which is an excellent aid in the criticism of ship manoeuvres. Visual, radar and audio run simultaneously and can be frozen or played in slow and quick motion. This comprehensive recording facility is important and provides an excellent instructional aid in that the student is often unaware of an incorrect decision being made in the hectic situations which develop on the bridge. It is possible to pick up an exercise from when an incorrect decision was made and demonstrate the successful outcome when the right decision is injected.
In addition to recording for debriefing purposes, all exercises may be stored on magnetic disks and used again as a pre-set exercise which reproduces all the exact parameters and ship tracks which occurred in that exercise. This pre-set exercise capability is useful in the development of a library of exercises which highlight a particular training point or navigational incident. Other ship tracks in this mode, remain on their pre-set heading unless altered by the instructor.
A feature of the simulator is the onsite programming facility which permits the modification and generation of ship models and harbour scenes by utilization of digitizer equipment. A drawing of whatever is required to be modelled, e.g. ship or coastline, is placed on this drawing board and is electronically etched by this instrument and the results show up on a VDU. The model is etched from several aspects and when the results are satisfactory, colour is added and the model is then available for use in cassette form. A certain number of models will be provided at system acceptance; however, a large production task will be required in the initial stages to produce Australia scenarios. It is a simple task which can be undertaken by unskilled manpower but it is time consuming and takes one man two weeks to model a ship such as an FFG. It is possible that the RAN may be able to obtain several scenarios from the Hamburg Maritime College who have a similar simulator which will have been in operation for two years when the RAN system is accepted.
Simulator Training
Training priorities for use of the simulator have been agreed and it has been determined that the primary user of the simulator will be junior seaman officers, prior to joining their ships for practical sea training to gain their FBWC. This training is best co-ordinated and managed during their Stage III courses. Second priority is given to commanding officers and executive officers designate so that they may practise handling their ships in the more advanced manoeuvres of replenishment approaches, harbour entry and alongside approach. It will also dust off a few cobwebs accumulated during sometimes long periods ashore at head office. Other users will be bridge teams from ships alongside in Sydney; Long and Short navigating officers courses; and naval reserve officers. It is apparent that there will be little free time.
Research and Development
Not stated as a requirement, but existing as a capability is the simulator’s ability to be used as an investigative tool. The RAN’s simulator will be capable of answering many questions about the maritime environment which until now have not been able to be researched in any depth. The simulator will allow experiments to gather data and to provide repeatability of trials to include additional data It will be useful for analysis of the bridge instrumentation, information presentation the ergonomics of bridge design, and evaluation of the man himself and his capacity to absorb the information as presented. It will be possible to go beyond the bridge to the ship itself and evaluate ship handling techniques, the advantages of different screw and rudder, external factors, aids to navigation, buoys, lights, beacons; are they really assisting the mariner or are they dreamed up by bureaucrats sitting at desks with a nice orderly plot on a plan? Certainly it is not a foolproof path to the answers we are seeking, but it is a far better option than we have had in the past.
Project Management
In comparison with many Defence projects, the Bridge Simulator has led somewhat of a charmed life. The project received considerable impetus in 1980 following the Afghanistan incursion and was brought forward for a Year 0 decision. It has been developed in 2 Phases:
- Phase 1. The Project Definition to investigate the viability of the project, and
- Phase 2. Acquisition and Installation.
Sperry Systems Management of USA and Krupp Atlas Electronik of Bremen Germany undertook Phase 1 and, as a result of evaluation of their responses. Krupp were awarded the Phase 2 contract at a firm price of $10.309m Total project costs are $13.379m (at August 1982 prices) which include the facility and spares. A tender for construction of the building was accepted in January 1983. Work commenced in February and is expected to be completed by May 1984. Krupp will install and set the system to work on site late in 1984 prior to final system acceptance trials programmed for March 1985. It is planned that Krupp (Australia) will be awarded the first maintenance support contract for a period of three years from acceptance. Two Australian firms, F.P. Sanney Pty Ltd and Computer Sciences of Australia, have been awarded sub-contracts for the design and manufacture of components of the simulator system which will have Australian Industrial Participation (AIP) in excess of 30%.
Conclusion
Visitors to the Hamburg Facility have been thoroughly enthralled by the total realism of the system and convinced that the bridge simulator will be a very valuable training aid. This opinion is confirmed by the increasing number of maritime colleges who are acquiring simulators for training purposes. By mid 1985, all RAN navigation courses will employ the simulator as a major training aid. Its introduction into service is expected to contribute significantly to the reduction in overall training time in the award of a FBWC and will ultimately result in the production of a more polished, confident and safe bridge watch-keeping officer.
*Lieutenant Commander Frank Allica joined the RAN in 1965 and served in HMAS Hobart during her tour of duty in Vietnam in 1970. He qualified as a Destroyer Gunnery Officer in 1971, Principal Warfare Officer in 1975 and Advanced Warfare Officer in Above Water Weapons in 1978. In 1972 he was Commanding Officer of HMAS Samarai in PNG waters, then served as gunnery officer of HMAS Stuart and HMS London during which time he saw service in the Standing NATO Atlantic Squadron. Other appointments include Command Gunnery Officer WA and SO(G) Directorate of Naval User Requirements. In 1980-81 he was Executive Officer of HMAS Vampire prior to taking up appointment as Bridge Simulator Project Director. He later set up the Young Endeavour Youth Training Scheme and was the inaugural Master of the Young Endeavour. Frank retired from the RAN in 1993 with the rank of Commander. Subsequent to his naval service Frank became a Master Mariner and has been Master of the oceanographic ship Alicia, HM Bark Endeavour and a range of small expedition cruise ships and schooners. He resides in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
