US Navy Utilizes Virtual Reality to Train Sailors

U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) air department began using virtual-reality to simulate flight deck operations inside the mobile Carrier-Advanced Reconfigurable Training System (C-ARTS) classroom located at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

The trainer allows the sailors to actively practice theprocedures of flight operations in real time while the ship is pier side.

The C-ARTS classrooms have been in operation since December2018 while Ford was at Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuildingin Newport News, Virginia.

“Some of these sailors here, right now, have had zero flightdeck experience,” said Lt. Brianne Law, a Naval Flight Officer, from Pensacola,Florida, serving aboard Ford. “So, one of the great things about the virtualreality simulator is that we can do demonstrations. The sailors can put on thevirtual reality goggles and see exactly what is going to happen.”

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier during flightoperations can be very hectic with personnel and equipment moving aroundconstantly. There are many variables to account for. Being able to simulate asmany of these different circumstances in a safe environment is extremelybeneficial to sailors.

“If something is wrong on the flight deck or somebody isgiving a suspend signal, here is what I am going to do,” said Law. “You canwalk through that scenario and go through the motions. Doing the actualprocedures, in a simulated environment. That is a lot safer.”

As sailors rotate from Ford, so does their base ofknowledge. Finding economical ways to train year-round is the primary purposeof the C-ARTS trainers.

“In aviation we have simulators,” said Law. “We have thatbuilt into our syllabus and that allows us to save time and money and allows usto get additional training. We thought it would be a good concept forcarriers.”

The C-ARTS trainerscan be arranged to facilitate virtual reality training along with augmentedreality and mixed reality training. This allowed Ford to meet necessarytraining requirements for flight operations.