So what is Battle Stations anyways?

[Mary, Proud Mom of Nick]

As taken from the Navy Training Command website...

Battle Stations 21



Battle Stations 21 is part of an $82.5 million facility at the Navy’s Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, Ill, about 30 miles north of Chicago. It is the culmination of all training received at the Navy’s only boot camp, a grueling 12-hour test of a recruit’s skills that marks the final rite of passage.

Entering a 157,000 square-foot building, recruits will find themselves on a pier, gazing at a 210-foot-long replica of a guided-missile destroyer. The pier is complete with a façade that replicates an actual pier in Norfolk, Va. Realism is added thanks to special effects lighting, sea and diesel scents, surround audio and 90,000 gallons of water splashing between the pier and the ship. USS Trayer also feels, smells, sounds and looks like the real thing, with the incorporation of the latest in virtual reality, entertainment technology and modern construction techniques. Once they are in this totally immersive environment, recruits will proceed through 17 different shipboard scenarios that will test problem-solving, communications and other essential skills, with realistic consequences for their actions.

Mission
Battle Stations 21 addresses a changing war fighting environment. As the Department of Defense’s most cutting-edge trainer, Battle Stations 21 will send a better trained Sailor to the Fleet. Its realistic training will save lives & ships. Battle Stations 21 balances workforce environments within an increasingly constrained fiscal reality.

Cost: $82.5 million
Throughput:
Four divisions of 88 recruits—352 recruits, along with their facilitators—will be able to move through the facility at once, every night of the year. Multiple events can occur in various spaces simultaneously, many of which must be reset several times within a night so that all participants can experience each event.

Operators: 67 (63 facilitators, 4 staff)

Scenarios:
1. Mission Brief/Move Aboard
2. Stores on load/off load
3. Line handling
4. Main/Auxiliary Watch
5. Roving security
6. Bridge watch
7. Lookout
8. Casualty Control Station
9. Prepare for General Quarters
10. Firefighting
11. Flooding
12. Mass Casualty
13. Emergency egress
14. Man overboard
15. Compartment Check-off List
16. Ship maintenance
17. Capping Ceremony

Cutting-Edge Simulator
Cutting edge, multi-sensory technology, seamlessly integrated with architecture and engineering produces a state-of-the-art simulation facility. Sophisticated control systems allow for facilitators to control each scenario with a wireless Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Controllable elements include:
Realistic scenery
Flame Effects
Water Effects
High-definition Projection
Custom Video Media
Computer Animation
Animated Props
Surround Ambient Audio
Point Source Sound Effects
Subwoofer Vibration
Defined Ambient Lighting
Strobes and Lighting Effects
Fog, Smoke & Air Effects
Scent Machines
Ambient Temperatures
Hot Objects

A half-dozen special-effects firms collaborated on this simulator. Through set design, props, lighting, and a variety of special effects, including piped-in aromas, recruits will experience horrifying realism, from mass casualties to a burning ship. Among the touches, built-in MP3 players, triggered by infrared technology, make “injured” dummies scream, moan and make faint breathing sounds. Thousands of gallons of water flood the ship’s compartments. Flames jet from fire fighting areas. Floors shake to mimic the ship’s movement. With Battle Stations 21, the Navy has risen to the challenge of a tough audience; it is using the best in 21st century technology to educate recruits who grew up in the multimedia age.

Among the challenges the building team faced designing Battle Stations were balancing a convincing simulation with constructability, safety and cost; finding a safe, logical way for more than 350 people, many in a high-stress situation, to move through the building safely and logically; and designing the building’s infrastructure—ventilation, lighting, plumbing, and electrical systems—to handle complex, unusual special effects. The team had to balance the need to create scenarios that posed physical challenges to recruits, and emanated a sense of danger, while maintaining acceptable safety levels for untested recruits.

Battle Stations 21 represents the first time within the industry when a trainer and its structure have been designed and assembled at the same time—by the same team. Also, it is unusual as a training facility because it is a fully integrated simulator—rather than recruits entering a building to use a simulator, the building itself is the simulator.


Full use for recruits is scheduled to begin in June 2007 with testing of the facility taking place February through June.