Delivering Aegis Training To The Waterfront
by U.S. Navy Kimberly Lansdale
Surface Combat Systems Training Command
July 16, 2024 Surface Combat Systems Training Command (SCSTC) Hampton Roads (HR) recently conducted a ribbon cutting for SCSTC’s third Reconfigurable Combat Information Center Trainer (RCT), onboard Naval Station (NAVSTA) Norfolk.
During this surface combat systems training milestone event, SCSTC HR’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Riley Murdock, addressed Aegis Tactical Action Officer (ATAO) students in the RCT. 
June 17, 2024 - Students in the nine-week Aegis Tactical Action Officer course execute realistic, relevant, and complex scenarios in a threat environment that they may face at sea in the Reconfigurable Combat Information Center Trainer at Surface Combat Systems Training Command Hampton Roads onboard Naval Station Norfolk. (Image created by USA Patriotism! from U.S. Navy photos by Electronics Technician 1st Class Cassondra Johnson.)
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“You are making history today,” she said. “You are the first U.S. naval officers to receive Aegis pipeline training outside of Dahlgren in the program’s 40-year history.”
To ensure warfighters possess the tactical and technical competence and proficiency needed to execute across the spectrum of operations in today’s challenging environment, SCSTC has been adapting and implementing innovative ways to train our future warfighting force.
A key component to SCSTC’s training approach is to immerse trainees in realistic real world training environments by emulating, simulating, or providing the physical elements of the equipment and operating conditions with trainers such as the RCT. In 2019, the first two RCTs came online at SCSTC AEGIS Training and Readiness Center onboard Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, Virginia.
The RCT is part of Surface Training Advanced Virtual Environment – Combat Systems (STAVE-CS), the Director, Surface Warfare’s (OPNAV N96) program of record. STAVE-CS was introduced nine years ago as a means to invest in training technologies, devices, and facilities to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and availability of all surface training.
The trainer allows watchteams to practice standard operating procedures, tactics, techniques, and procedures, and pre-planned responses in a simulator with capabilities like SCSTC’s Combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Trainer (CIAT), minus the ASW capability. The RCT plays a crucial role in Aegis pipeline training, especially in the nine-week ATAO course. The overall objective of the course is combat identification, the process of recognizing a threat and then pairing the best tactics to counter that threat. Approximately 80 percent of this course is lab time in the RCT.
To accommodate more throughput of our advanced Aegis baseline training, SCSTC worked with its counterparts and industry partners to deliver the RCT to NAVSTA Norfolk, the world's largest naval station, with the largest concentration of U.S. Navy forces.
Having this trainer available at the waterfront also allows more flexibility. It maintains the training pipeline during times of upgrade at other RCTs, and Officers are closer to their families and/or assigned ships/units in the Norfolk area.
More importantly, the RCTs are preparing our ships for real world events and ensuring the warfighting needs of our Fleet. SCSTC, its counterparts, and industry partners have been assessing and examining lessons learned from the attacks in the Red Sea and incorporating them into training scenarios in the RCTs for ships preparing to deploy.
Currently, there is a fourth RCT under construction onboard Naval Base San Diego, the largest naval base on the West Coast and the primary homeport for the Pacific Fleet, which includes more than 50 ships.
“Having RCTs at our major fleet concentration areas will help build a strong network of Aegis warfighters across the Surface Force and ensure our warfighters are prepared to fight, win, and return home safely,” said Murdock.
Surface Combat Systems Training Command (SCSTC), headquartered in Dahlgren, Virginia, falls under the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), led by Rear Adm. Jeffrey Czerewko. SCSTC is a training organization that consists of 15 global learning sites and detachments. Its mission is to provide the U.S. Navy and our allies with highly trained warfighters to maintain, operate, and tactically employ surface combat systems across the spectrum of operations. Annually, SCSTC delivers training to over 37,000 U.S. Navy Sailors as well as 700 international Sailors from 27 partner nations. Surface Combat Systems Training Command | U.S. Navy | U.S. Navy Gifts | U.S. Department of Defense Our Valiant Troops | I Am The One | Veterans | Citizens Like Us |
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