Royal Navy using VR tech to train sailors for warships

The officer in charge of the Navigational Training Unit said the technology had made a "generational leap"

Virtual reality headsets will help train Royal Navy sailors to navigate warships on operations.

The Navy's Fareham-based warfare school, HMS Collingwood, has installed nine simulators in sites across the UK.

The technology recreates the bridge of present-day warships and shows key waters and harbours the sailors will work in.

Lt Cdr Gavin Lowe said it is a "game changer" for training future navigators.

The officer in charge of the Navigational Training Unit was among the first to use the original simulators 20 years ago.

The simulators have been installed after a £27m investment to the Royal Navy

Lt Cdr Lowe explained: "Over my time training the Royal Navy I've seen an uplift in technology, but this is a generational leap forward and frankly a different game entirely.

"The new simulators are fantastic. The debriefing - allowing to accurately run through what's just happened - is a game-changer when it comes to training navigators and bridge teams."

The simulators recreate the bridge of a present-day warship and show key waters and harbours sailors will work in

The VR simulators have been installed after a £27m investment between Team Fisher and Metaverse VR.

HMS Collingwood is home to five of them, with two large full mission simulators including wrap-around digital display screens and virtual reality headsets, a smaller version with an LCD display and two small trainers which are similar to a video gaming set-up.

The other four have been divided between the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and a new naval facility in Faslane, Scotland.

Five simulators have been installed at the Royal Navy's warfare school, HMS Colingwood

The Royal Navy has been using digital bridge simulators for training for nearly 30 years, with the existing ones being installed at HMS Collingwood in 2002.

HMS Collingwood instructor, Lt Lauren Webber, said: "We've been able to get training out quicker, faster and better, allowing students to have more time in these simulators to better practice anything they would do in the real world when they get out there."

Lt Lauren Webber said the technology meant they could get training out quicker for students

Sub Lt Stephen Smallman added: "It feels fantastic, the ability to change all the different scenarios and do it with different layers of complexity really adds to it.

"You get so immersed in it, you don't really realise you're in a simulator."

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