BANGOR — The Navy’s newest training ground for submariners requires no water at all.
The seas of Puget Sound appear to swell all around the trainee on a giant, 360-degree screen; airplanes fly by and tanker ships bob in the waves. Even a gentle breeze is mimicked with a fan from above.
“Our joke is, ‘where’s the rain?” said James Short, a Navy navigations chief.
The Submarine Bridge Trainer at Bangor’s Trident Training Facility, unveiled Monday, is as close to the real thing as it gets, Navy officials say. At a cost of $7 million, submariners can practice almost anything they would do under way, including piloting a sub to and from many of the world’s ports. Capt. John Fancher, commanding officer of the training facility, called it a “world-class” simulator at its dedication.
“It blows me away,” he said.
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Chief James Short uses the new virtual-reality submarine bridge trainer at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. The $7 million tool allows entire bridge crews to train simultaneously in a realistic setting. (Photo: Larry Steagall / Kitsap Sun)
Construction, which began in October 2015, was completed by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, with help from federal contractors.
Rear Adm. John Tammen, commander of the fleet of submarines at Bangor, said the trainer will ensure sailors aboard the Navy’s ballistic and guided missile submarines will be prepared for what he called “not a very stable world right now.” He mentioned America’s “four plus one” threats — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorism — and pointed out the bus and knife attack in London Sunday that has so far left eight people dead.
“We’re making the investments needed so that we can stay on top of our game,” Tammen said.
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Chief James Short operates the new submarine bridge trainer at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. (Photo: Larry Steagall / Kitsap Sun)
Submariners can already use virtual reality in training, but usually only one sailor at a time. The new trainer allows an entire bridge crew to work in unison.
“It maintains the team dynamic,” Short said.
Bangor’s version is the third the Navy has put into service, following Groton, Connecticut, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
It doesn’t hurt that the trainer is a grander version to what many young sailors might have and play at home, in the form of an XBOX or Playstation.
“Millennials take to this like a fish to water,” said Darrell Lewis, executive officer at the Trident training facility.