South African Navy’s Simulation Centre Begins Service

The South African Navy’s state-of-the-art simulation centre was taken into service at SAS Simonsberg, the Navy’s maritime warfare training centre, defenceWeb reported Thursday.

The centre is the result of a joint venture with industry to enhance naval training using the latest in technology. The South African Navy said that the objective is to enable sailors to gain the necessary practical experience and elevated ability to execute simulated tasks, naval operations and exercises up to and in high risk environments.

Equipment for the simulator was provided by Cybicom Atlas Defence (CAD) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) with facilities compliments of the maritime arm of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

In addition to sharpening the skills of sailors, training will provide feedback to the suppliers. This will allow for fitted equipment to be further upgraded.

Dave Viljoen, managing director of Cybicom, showed Chief of the SA Navy Vice Admiral Mosuwa Hlongwane, exactly how the simulation centre is put together following the recent official opening ceremony.

The centre has four sections. One is a naval bridge simulator display designed to facilitate training in safe vessel navigation and naval operations, another is a helicopter similar display which has the main platform, flight control and pilot’s seats, third is a helicopter flight deck trainer display designed to provide training for flight deck controllers and maritime rotary-wing pilots, and the final one is a PC-based submarine trainer display.

The simulation centre is a tool to supplement training of the onboard sensor and weapons systems for commanders and crews of the Navy’s Heroine Class Type 209 submarines.