Home Americas CAE, Pinnacle to deliver littoral combat ship simulators to US Navy

CAE, Pinnacle to deliver littoral combat ship simulators to US Navy

littoral combat ship bridge part-task trainer
Photo: CAE

CAE USA and Pinnacle Solutions have formed a joint venture company Xebec that will deliver the first three littoral combat ship (LCS) bridge part-task trainers (BPTTs) to the US 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 LCS simulators will greatly assist in this endeavor,” said Michael Beard, program manager, US 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.”

Included in the initial delivery to the SWSC in Newport will be two simulators for the Independence-variant and one simulator for the Freedom-variant of the LCS. 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 simulators which will be delivered to the LCS training facilities located in San Diego, California and Mayport, Florida.

“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.”