Navy Continues Advanced Surface Training, Deemed Mission-Essential, During COVID Restrictions
By: Megan Eckstein
May 1, 2020 3:05 PM
The Navy’s advanced surface warfare exercises have been deemed mission essential and are moving forward amid coronavirus-related restrictions, demonstrating the surface navy’s dedication to improving its skill, the head of the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) told USNI News.
Rear Adm. Scott Robertson said that Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training (SWATT) exercises were able to continue with slight scheduling modifications and abundant precautions ahead of time to ensure that SMWDC personnel embedding on ships at sea weren’t bringing the virus with them.
During SWATT events, warfare tactics instructors (WTIs) embark on participating ships and help the crews through a plan, brief, execute and debrief (PBED) process that helps them think more critically about how they’re approaching warfighting problems, as well as to help them learn more advanced tactics for higher-end warfighting scenarios. The first SWATT occurred in 2016, and all deploying carrier strike groups (CSGs) and amphibious ready groups (ARGs) since 2018 have gone through them as part of required pre-deployment training.
https://news.usni.org/2020/05/01/navy-continues-advanced-surface-training-deemed-mission-essential-during-covid-restrictions
