UK team researches new command space layout for submarines

Dstl and the Department of Transportation Research at Southampton University have built a simulator to explore how the command space in future submarines could be reconfigured.

Dstl technical partner Chris Parnell said: ‘Having operators facing inwards creates conditions for much better shared situation awareness between the command team; and placing the officer of the watch in the centre of the command team leads to a more efficient tactical picture generation.’

Working under the Command Team-working Experimental Test-bed (ComTET) programme, Dstl provided the simulation engine in the form of commercial gaming software. University students, Dstl staff and industry participants used a bespoke training package to act as submariners.

A second simulator has been built at Dstl’s Portsdown West site which replicates and will build upon the Southampton facility and will enable more sensitive data to be generated.

Dstl is now undertaking human-in-the-loop assessments of industry-created human machine interface prototypes, which fuse sensor data in an approach to pave the way for future RN command teams to adopt new ways of working. This will include alternative roles, new procedures, adjustments to manning and changes to training regimes.