A delegation from China has been given an insight into Royal Navy training during visits to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, as part of the UK’s defence engagement programme.
Three Officers from the Naval University of Engineering of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy spent three days in the UK as guests of the Royal Navy.
The invitation followed a successful visit to China by a group from the Royal Navy and was designed to strengthen a relationship between the British and Chinese defence training establishments, ahead of a planned cadet exchange later this year.
The Chinese delegation started their visit at Britannia Royal Naval College where they were given a brief on the 30-week initial naval training course for Officers and were shown some of the facilities available for training.
They were able to see fitness and weapons training taking place and were given a tour of the navigation block where they were able to see the multi-million pound bridge simulator used primarily for navigation and Officer-of-the Watch training.
The visitors were given some background on the history of the College and Naval training on the River Dart, which dates back to 1853, when HMS Britannia sailed to new moorings on the river as a training ship for Naval Cadets.
After two days in Devon the visitors moved to Portsmouth for a look around HMS Excellent where they saw the facilities used to instruct sailors in the vital skills to deal with floods and fires at sea.
The state-of-art simulators are designed to make the training as realistic as possible in an environment which replicates the compartments on ships and submarines.
The Damage Repair Instructional Unit rocks from side-to-side and as water pours in sailors must make repairs to the ship’s hull to stem the inflow of water using wooden wedges and props.
In the fire-fighting units the sailors are challenged to extinguish real fires in smoke filled compartments.
While in Portsmouth the visitors were also taken on a tour of HMS Victory, Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar, which is now open to the public.
