NSS Courses Receive Upgrades

By Team Submarine Public Affairs

The AN/BLQ-10(V) Electronic Warfare Support (ES) System Operations and Maintenance Courses at the Naval Submarine School (NSS), Newport R.I, was recently upgraded, and attained its Ready for Training (RFT) milestone. The major upgrades, taking more than two years to complete, involved developing 109 Interactive Multi-Media Instruction (IMI) modules along with an AN/BLQ-10 display simulator; curriculum updates; the development of the system’s interactive electronic technical manual (IETM) that links with Authority Instructional Materials (AIM), and post-delivery preparation for NSS’s instructor-lead IMI courses. This effort provides the NSS’s ES warfare training with the Submarine Force’s latest Electronic Warfare training tools.

PMS435 funded and led the courses’ development team that consisted of PMS435, the VIRGINIA Class Program Office (PMS450), NSS, Submarine Learning Center (SLC), Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and Lockheed-Martin Corp. (LMC) Syracuse, NY. As the prime contractor for the BLQ-10 hardware, software, and associated logistics products, LMC Syracuse not only created the BLQ-10 IMI products but also hosted management and product reviews at their facility. NSS’s leadership and instructors, as well as the product’s end-users, were involved from the beginning of the project and played a major role in the course’s maturation. This development process included Tactical Training Equipment (TTE) based factory training for four NSS instructors, review of IMI module preliminary storyboards, detailed storyboards; IMI modules; and the BLQ-10 display simulator. SLC, with PMS 450’s support and subject matter experts from LMC Syracuse, installed two Navy Integrated Electronic Classrooms (NIEC) to fulfill the system’s Certification-For-Use. NSS Pilot instructors, with the BLQ-10 training equipment installed, began conducting lessons beginning with an operations course that was followed by the maintenance course. Each course consisted of simultaneous instruction – including labs – to 12 trainees without using TTE. The teachers used a combination of the instructor-lead IMI modules, the BLQ-10 display simulator, and the BLQ-10 IETM for their lessons. Each of the NSS’s NIECs consists of individual learning stations, a smart-board, and an instructor station with the ability to train 12 students at a time. LMC Syracuse employees were on-site at NSS during the entire course pilot. LMC Syracuse subject matter experts provided the NSS instructors with support services including IMI product technical and instructional use guidance. Additionally, LMC’s experts input instructor curriculum comments as required, enabling the program of study to rapidly evolve from Stage III through Stage IV to V, allowing the project to conclude on-time (May 31), and meet its Ready for Training milestone. Source: NAVSEA