Warfare officers to hit the books

STUDENT: Air intercept controller LEUT Andrew Hough hard at work making decisions in the pressure cooker environment of an operations room simulator at HMAS Watson.

Photo: LSPH Yuri Ramsey

By Michael Brooke

The first Force Warfare Officers (FWO) course, an advanced training course for Principal Warfare Officers (PWOs) with experience at sea, begins at HMAS Watson in August.

The five-month FWO course is designed to raise PWOs to a new level of maritime warfare expertise.

It is open to officers who have completed a posting as a PWO at sea for between 12 and 18 months and provides sub-specialist and force warfare training.

The FWO course will allow experienced PWOs to fulfil tasks as a Force Warfare Officer in a number of varying situations and areas of operation (AO).

The training will instil in specialist officers the ability to apply their specific knowledge as part of a higher level deployed headquarters such as those deployed in the Persian Gulf or as part of a joint force element.

OIC Maritime Warfare Training Centre at HMAS Watson LCDR Jaye Harris said emerging technologies and regional capabilities would continue to drive the evolution in warfare training of PWOs.

He said, taking into account the time and training throughout their career, it costs more than $1 million to train a warfare officer. Watson houses two operational simulators (guided missile and Anzac frigates) and two new simulators presently coming on line (Command Ops Room and FFG Upgrade).

The most recently commissioned operational simulator is the Anzac class FFH operations room which uses full milspec equipment and cost about $60 million to set up. LCDR Harris said this was a relatively small price to pay for professional and realistic training “because there is probably no greater pressure in the Navy than the responsibility shouldered by PWOs”.

“A PWO has to be prepared to make a command decision in a time of crisis, often with little decision time - perhaps only seconds - the time it takes for an anti-ship missile to penetrate the ship’s multi-layered defence,” he said. “Graduating as a PWO is a major step in many naval officers’ careers.”

LCDR Harris said that after learning theory for three months, the students are tested in an operations room simulator (FFG or FFH) to determine if they can transfer their knowledge to an operational environment.

The students face many challenges over the six weeks of surface warfare integrated practical exercises (SWIPE), particularly in regard to demonstrating their theoretical knowledge of ship combat operations in the operations room simulator.

They must also demonstrate their ability to ‘manage’ operations room command teams and engage the required ‘positive synergies’.

“The challenge is developing what we term the ‘third ear’ - the ability to fuse the multi faceted sources of data available in modern Ops rooms,” LCDR Harris said.

“The tests are all very realistic and place immense pressure on the students, who are subjected to both a qualitative and quantitative assessment by instructors from the PWO Faculty here at Watson.

“ At the time of going to press, Chief of Navy VADM Russ Shalders was scheduled to preside over the PWO graduation ceremony at HMAS Watson on July 27.

The graduation ceremony was to mark the end of the gruelling sixmonth PWO training course for the 13 students including three women.

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