HMS HERMES ASSOCIATION VISIT QUEEN ELIZABETH CLASS SIMULATOR

March 11th 2019

Members of the HMS Hermes Association were given a special tour of HMS Sultan’s new Queen Elizabeth Class Ship Control Centre Training System recently after the system took on the name Hermes in recognition of important carriers of the past.

The QEC Ships Control Centre Training System (SCCTS), which carries the name Hermes, simulates the ships’ Integrated Platform Management System on both HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales. The System enables students and ships’ teams to conduct synthetic training that almost perfectly matches what personnel would see on the live platform. 

The facility can mimic machinery breakdowns and system problems that a Marine Engineer would be likely to see onboard. From Leading Engineering Technicians, through to senior engineering Officers, training is conducted as if on watch, so all the different positions work together and their reactions to different situations can be analysed. 

HMS Hermes was the name given to the World’s first ship to be designed as an Aircraft carrier, Hermes 9, which served in conflict during the Second World War and Hermes 10, which was the Royal Navy’s Flagship during the Falklands Conflict.

President of the HMS Hermes Association, Rear Admiral Dick Melly said: “We were hugely gratified to learn that the simulator was going to be called the HMS Hermes simulator. For us we all have a great interest in the Navy in general and Hermes in particular.

To see this is a step change for me. I was the Marine Engineering Officer of a type 42, which was a lot of traditional gauges, to come in and see just these screens is a total eye opener for me, it’s quite astonishing.”