Rheinmetall is currently delivering such a Total Ship Trainer to the Royal Thai Navy. In July 2021, Rheinmetall Electronics from Bremen was awarded the contract to build the facility, which is known as the Naval Mission Training Center (NMTC). Rheinmetall is not only supplying the simulators, but is also responsible for the construction of the training building at the naval base in Sattahip, Thailand. The project also includes interconnection with other Royal Thai Navy facilities and the training of teaching staff.
The two-story NMTC includes 20 individual simulators in “full-mission” and “part-task” configurations, as well as four associated classroom trainers and related briefing/debriefing equipment. The outstanding feature of the NMTC system is the ability to combine the individual simulators for “Total Ship Training.” In the NMTC, the “bridge”, “engine room”, “operations center” and “damage control” simulators together form a “ship of their own” and interact with each other. This enhanced collaboration enables joint team training of a ship’s essential crew members. In particular, operational procedures and communication methods can be trained and optimized in a wide variety of internal and external naval warfare scenarios. This makes the previous individual crew training much more realistic and comprehensive, so that the entire crew is better prepared for combat readiness at sea.
From October 2022, in addition to the integration of the system, the training of the Thai naval instructors also took place in Germany. In January 2023, the navy instructors successfully completed their very intensive training on all individual simulators of the Total Ship Trainer configuration and on the server system. Subsequently, the training system was again optimized with regard to the customer’s user requirements.
The entire system was on a sea transport to the Sattahip naval base in mid-April, where system integration and commissioning will begin in the completed training building. Final acceptance by the customer is scheduled for July 2023.