Inzpire Limited Deliver Ground-Breaking Capability Concept Demonstrator to the Royal Navy
04 May 21
Collective Training and Services OBU
04 May 21
Collective Training and Services OBU
Experts from Inzpire Limited’s Collective Training Division have recently concluded the design and delivery of a significant capability concept demonstration event to develop the Royal Navy’s ability to conduct realistic, immersive training which will assist Navy Command in the development of their Defence Operational Training Capability (Maritime) (DOTC (M)) programme.
QinetiQ provided the innovative technical solution including a complex synthetic environment, a ship simulation system and a communication network. This, combined with Inzpire’s collective training delivery expertise created a realistic and immersive simulated environment in which Navy personnel could safely conduct essential training.
The event took place in Portsmouth from 17-18 March at the new National Maritime System Centre and aimed to demonstrate potential options for the DOTC(M) programme and support further investigation into Platform-Enabled Training Capability (PETC) technical possibilities. The event tested the ability to control an exercise from the shore whilst a Royal Navy frigate was alongside through a remotely-located Professional White Force, allowing military trainees to utilise their own operations room as if they were deployed and conducting operations for real. For this test, integration was proven to the Shoreside Integration Facility. The final stage of training on-board a Royal Navy frigate is planned in the summer.
Collective training and maritime experts from Inzpire were involved from the outset, working with the DOTC(M) programme team and Flag Officer Sea Training (South) (FOST(S)) staff instructors to establish the desired training objectives. The Inzpire team then designed, built and tested the simulated mission scenarios which were bespoke and tailored to ensure all training requirements were met.
Royal Navy and Inzpire staff dynamically manage the training scenario
During the event itself, Inzpire’s Professional White Force provided the full spectrum of exercise requirements ranging from briefings aimed at the trainees, mentoring during the planning phase and coordination of the mission execute White Force elements. Inzpire personnel also role-played both internal and external agencies to provide visual, verbal and digital inputs to the training environment, creating a totally immersive and real-life scenario to replicate potential future missions that the trainees may undertake.
Critical to any learning opportunity is the chance to assess what went well and what didn’t, and Inzpire’s training experts delivered a comprehensive and interactive after action review which allowed participants to analyse their performance and understand how improvements could be made in the future.
Inzpire facilitates an interactive debrief with Royal Navy Flag Officer Sea Training (South) (FOST(S)) staff
Capt Rich Purdy RN, DOTC(M) Programme Director, said: “this achievement represents a significant milestone in the Defence Operational Training Capability (Maritime) Programme, the Concept Capability Demonstration directly informing how a globally deployed Royal Navy will prepare, rehearse and assure a lethal and sustainable Carrier Strike Group capability for the UK.”
Richard Tattersall, Inzpire’s head of collective training, said: “This event was the first of several concept demonstrators which will embrace innovative ways of delivering operational team and collective training to the Royal Navy, the goal being to deliver training to the war fighters in their own Ops Rooms both alongside and eventually at sea. It was fantastic to see Inzpire’s collective training experts working so closely with the FOST(S) training team whose feedback has been positive and vital to driving the requirements for future collective training and specifically DOTC(M).”
Darron Fox, Inzpire collective training consultant, said: “combining Inzpire’s Professional White Force expertise with innovative technical solutions meant that trainees were able to use PETC as an opportunity to train as a team, in a fully immersive scenario which transported them to another part of the World. Using an exact simulation of their own ship’s system and being able to interact with both internal and external parties in exactly the same way as if they had been deployed on a mission greatly benefitted the training audience. Using this technical model opens up the potential for training to be undertaken when platforms are alongside at almost any location.”
Inzpire's Darron Fox during the delivery of the PETC trial in Portsmouth
Inzpire’s Collective Training Division
Inzpire’s Collective Training division has over 13 years’ experience of partnered collective training delivery with the UK Ministry of Defence. The division has designed and delivered over 400 live and synthetic exercises and provided operationally-realistic training to over 10,000 frontline personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.
Our collective training teams are currently embedded in the RAF units at RAF Waddington and RAF Coningsby where we deliver joint collective training to Armed Forces personnel from both the UK and overseas.
Images: Peter Langdown Photography
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