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Destroyer crew praises realistic exercise

In June, the crew of the destroyer Sampson sank an enemy submarine, dodged incoming missile attacks and chopped the ocean into foam as the ship maneuvered to screen its aircraft carrier, the Nimitz.

Sort of.

Crew members did all those things while the ship was tied up at a pier at Naval Base San Diego, linked electronically to the other ships and aircraft of the Nimitz strike group, in the latest West Coast joint fleet synthetic training exercise, designed to get sailors ready for deployment while spending less time at sea.

Four Sampson crew members who talked to Navy Times said they thought the exercise went well, on the whole, but the Navy still has work to do on making its synthetic training more real and more reliable.

“I think everybody integrated pretty well, and that really helps the sense of realism when the system performs, you can continue the dream, as it were, rather than being woken up midway and then having to get back in,” Fire Controlman 1st Class (SW) Morgan Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick and the other sailors who talked to Navy Times said they couldn’t go into much detail about the scenario covered by the exercise, out of concern for operational security, but they did say it touched on almost all the jobs Sampson could expect to encounter on its deployment. Watch-standers throughout the ship, at the same duty stations they use when the destroyer is underway, ran through simulated combat scenarios that tested their ability to work individually and to cooperate with shipmates and the entire strike group.

The synthetic exercise is most valuable as a tool to help decision-makers learn how to lead and act, the sailors agreed, while saving money and time spent at sea.

“The level of tension, and the understanding that we’re in a busy, complex environment, is definitely felt in combat,” said Lt. Jeff Sizemore, Sampson’s chief engineer.

“The comms get pretty terse; you’re moving quickly to make sure everyone’s involved in the game. I felt that we’re really getting the level ratcheted up to understand that we’re all involved in playing.”

For Sizemore, that means getting and interpreting information essentially the same way he would if the ship were really at sea, consulting with the same superiors and giving the same orders.

For Sonar Technician 1st Class (SW) Steven Duncan, the most valuable part of the experience was improving his communications inside the ship. He coordinated with the ship’s sonar technicians, combat information center and commanders as Sampson “pinged” with its active sonar, hunting for a submerged enemy contact.

“They’re broadly trained to do everything they would be asked to do during a deployment,” said Capt. Trey Mitchell, commander of Tactical Training Group Pacific. “It’s everything from routine operations to potential high-end combat — it covers the entire spectrum.”

Mitchell said the West Coast strike group workup uses a concept similar to the “Treasure Coast” scenario on the East Coast. California, Oregon and Washington state play different countries enmeshed in geo-strategic intrigue, each with different relationships among them and with the U.S. — represented by Nimitz and its strike group.

As useful as the synthetic training was, however, the sailors said they were conscious at all times that it wasn’t real. For example, Duncan said the simulated ping returns the sonar techs heard in the synthetic scenario were much clearer than what sonar actually picks up at sea.

“Unless we’re actually in the environment, we can’t say how close to reality it really is,” he said. “Using synthetic trainer, it gives us a better return; you get a more crisp, precise return. There’s no questioning ourselves about whether we’re holding a contact or not. Out underway, you’re doing some turns, looking at charts see if we’re tracking a wreck, a seamount under the ocean, or if we are actually tracking a submarine.”

And Sizemore described how he gives the same orders to change course and speed as he would at sea, but instead of a sailor turning the ship’s wheel or calling for changes from the engine room, a technician enters the information into a computer. So even as Sampson “maneuvers” in its scenario, helmsmen, engineers and other sailors don’t play a big role in the exercise.

But Kirkpatrick said he and his fire controlmen, at their consoles in the combat information center, got enough tactical and background information — including Navy “bulletins” that described the circumstances Sampson will encounter — that they could believe the scenario.

“The training group does a really good job of putting out a geopolitical situation so that you can get yourself involved in what the synthetic environment is supposed to be,” he said. “If you have a good imagination and you can make that leap of faith, it’s pretty easy to get totally involved in it.”

Virtual reliability

The Sampson sailors’ biggest problem with their synthetic training has been the reliability of the systems that run it. During June’s exercise, Duncan said he had problems communicating with the crew of the helicopter that was to drop a torpedo on his submarine contact, and Kirkpatrick said the training still had bugs to work out.

“It’s been a work in progress,” Kirkpatrick said. “Our first two scenarios were pretty rough around the edges, and we had more technical difficulties.”

In the early workups, ships and aircraft couldn’t talk to each other, computers didn’t work as advertised, and each interruption broke the spell of Sampson’s tactical situation.

June’s fleet synthetic exercise was much better, said Ensign Chris Kizer, who is qualifying to stand watch at Sampson’s tactical action officer post.

“Obviously, this is a fairly new system,” he said, “especially when you get to the joint level, where you’ve got multiple players at multiple levels, all trying to integrate the Air Force, the Army, the Marines, the Navy, this is fairly new — there are hiccups and bugs, but if they’ve dedicated the time and energy to the project, I’m sure things are going to improve.”

Kizer and his shipmates echoed senior Navy officials in emphasizing the synthetic training couldn’t be as good as time underway doing the real thing. But Sizemore said he thought the tradeoffs were worth it.

“We understand that there are limitations to how much we can do, but whatever it is we want to see — different geographic areas — we can do that really quickly without doing two weeks of transit time to get somewhere. This certainly improves that. But there’ll always be limitations. There’s no replacing time at sea, and this is not going to do that.”

So close, so far

June’s West Coast synthetic fleet exercise included the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and two other ships that will deploy independently, all linked together virtually. The ships that trained, and where they trained from:

Naval Base San Diego

• Carrier Nimitz

• Destroyers Sampson and Pinckney

• Destroyer Higgins•

• Frigate Rentz

Naval Base Everett, Wash.

• Frigate Ingraham•

Naval Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

• Cruiser Chosin

-- • deploying independently

Source: 3rd Fleet