Navigation training for HRH Prince William
His Royal Highness PrinceWilliam, heir to the British throne, started a short attachment with the RoyalNavy in June and following in the footsteps of his father and grandfatherunderwent training at the Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) atDartmouth.
Whilst at BRNC Prince William was able to practice navigation, ship handling and other core navy skills in the NTPro 4000 Bridge Simulator that was supplied by Transas Marine in 2006. The Bridge Simulator (known as ‘HMS Daring’) forms the backbone of core navigation and watchkeeping training for all Young Officers (YO’s) at BRNC. Prince William was impressed with the capability of HMS Daring and particularly the way it enables BRNC instructors to immerse trainees in a realistic bridge team environment all within the safety and security of a classroom. After leaving BRNC the Prince joined 185 other sailors for five weeks on board the RN frigate HMS Iron Duke, which is tasked with counter-narcotics operations and disaster relief during hurricane season in the Caribbean.
HMS Daring is a purpose built full-mission simulator. It includes an extensive database of up to date exercise areas covering a large portion of the UK coastline, UK ports and foreign ports. BRNC instructors can use a variety of commercial and naval ship models to create realistic exercise scenarios appropriate to the particular training objectives, such as ship handling, pilotage, navigation, conning, communication, radar, WECDIS, replenishment at sea, fleet manoeuvres and others.
The Bridge Simulator was upgraded in February 2007 and further expansion was completed earlier this year to enhance training capability by introducing a second steering console and extra displays in the radar room. The Navigation Department at BRNC has consequently been able to increase the level of training for YO’s, almost doubling the teaching time available. During off peak times HMS Daring is regularly used by RN ship and submarine bridge teams for work-up and continuation training.
