Today at the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow, CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions announced their joint venture company Xebec 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.”
CAE is featuring a video demonstration of the Littoral Combat Ship bridge simulators in the Innovation Hub as part of the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow, which began today and is free to all attendees who register at https://www.caeoneworld2021.com/. CAE OneWorld 2021 will be available online for the next month.
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.
“The fidelity and flexibility of the Littoral Combat Ship simulators we have developed will allow the Navy to deliver most of the personnel qualification standards training in a simulation-based environment,” said Ray Duquette, President and General Manager, CAE USA. “This means when sailors get to their assigned ship they will be better prepared for the navigation and operational assignments required.”
The LCS BPTTs are being developed by Xebec, which is joint venture of CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions established under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé program.
“We were pleased to establish the Xebec joint venture with CAE and the collaboration has resulted in a very successful Littoral Combat Ship simulator program for the Navy,” said Mike Durant, Pinnacle’s President and CEO. “We look forward to continuing deliveries of the LCS simulators to the Navy and to future pursuits with CAE through the Xebec joint venture.”
