The collision between the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Hartford and the San Antonio-class amphibious ship USS New Orleans last March in the Straits of Hormuz was a setback for the Navy. It reminded the fleet that it needs to go back to basics, said Vice Adm. Jay Donnelly, commander of the submarine force.
That is one of the findings from a series of reviews prompted by the incident, and the Navy is implementing many of the lessons it has learned.
“We need to continuously combat complacency and improve our contact management skills,” Donnelly told an audience at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium in McLean, Va.
The USS Hartford crew was at the end of its five-month deployment to Central Command in support of maritime security operations when the sail of the submarine collided with the USS New Orleans as it was cruising at periscope depth.
The Hartford’s crew had been tracking the ship for 50 minutes before the accident occurred, Donnelly said. “There were a whole host of watch standers that failed to recognize the sensor data that was presented to them,” he said. The crew was trying to force-fit the USS New Orleans’ sonar contacts to automatic identification system signals that it was receiving from an out-bound ship on the same bearing, he explained.
As the Navy has embedded more and more capabilities into periscopes aboard its submarines, the amount of training required to operate the system has come into question.
“It’s no longer a trivial matter to be a periscope operator,” said Rear Adm. Doug McAneny, commander of submarines, Pacific. “It’s probably the most complicated sensor,” with technologies including ship automatic identification systems, radar and image intensifiers that are embedded in them.
Some of the Navy’s training challenges are related to technologies that are being fielded today aboard ships and submarines, acknowledged Rear Adm. Arnie Lotring, commander of Naval Education and Training Command. Ship control rooms are becoming increasingly information-rich environments through which sailors must wade, he said. “How are we preventing, through our training, our youngest and newest from becoming numb to zero-bearing contacts?” he asked.
To help fix the problem, the command has undertaken several initiatives to address tactical training for submariners. A prototype bridge trainer at the naval undersea warfare center in Newport, R.I., replicates a full-scale bridge of a submarine inside a sphere. Projectors produce realistic-looking scenes of what the bridge team on top of the sail would see. The trainer can connect to the virtual submarine trainer so that navigation and fire control teams can run through drills with the bridge team. “That’s a very big step forward,” said Lotring.