New Joint Venture Anchors in Combat Ship Trainers

At the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow, CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions unveiled their joint venture company Xebec, which will be delivering the first three Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Bridge Part-Task Trainers (BPTTs) to the United States Navy.

The new LCS BPTTs recently completed factory acceptance testing at CAE’s facility in Tampa, Florida, and will now be packed and shipped to the Navy’s Surface Warfare Schools Command (SWSC) in Newport, Rhode Island.  The SWSC is the Navy’s “Center of Excellence” for surface warfare where training for officers and sailors who will serve on the Navy’s surface combatants is delivered.

“The Navy is focused on navigation and seamanship training and these Littoral Combat Ship simulators will greatly assist in this endeavor,” said Michael Beard, Program Manager, U.S. 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.”

How is the Royal Navy in Europe looking to transform the way it trains its people? Find out in  Current and Future Operational Training in the Royal Navy.

Included in the initial delivery to the SWSC in Newport will be two LCS BPTTs for the LCS2 Independence-variant manufactured by General Dynamics, and one LCS BPTT for the LCS1 Freedom-variant manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The three LCS BPTTs 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, which will be delivered to the Littoral Combat Ship training facilities located in San Diego, California, and Mayport, Florida.