SAN DIEGO – A 2010 Whitewater High School graduate and Atlanta native is currently an instructor for the U.S. Navy training sailors in operating the technologically advanced Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
Operations Specialist 1st Class Petty Officer Chris Ford has been an instructor at the LCS Training Facility (LTF) since November 2017. The LTF, the first surface warfare training facility to provide integrated bridge and combat systems tactical scenario training for sailors serving on board an LCS, is operated by the Center for Surface Combat Systems’ (CSCS) learning site Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center (FLEASWTRACEN) in San Diego.
“I am directly responsible for ensuring future LCS sailors get the most up to date and most advanced training,” Ford explained. “I mainly focus on teaching tactical decisions and tactical advantages the LTF provides to deploy fully trained and qualified ships out to sea to defend freedom and democracy around world.”
Ford teaches a five-week LCS capstone that focuses on basic Integrated Combat Management Systems operations and tactical decision making.
“Sailors serving in the LCS environment demand a higher quantity and quality of training,” explained Capt. Brandon Bryan, FLEASWTRACEN’s commanding officer. “LCS class ships drive a new approach to individual, team, and unit-level training to accommodate the minimum manning and rotational crewing concepts. This new approach drives the need for the shore-centric Train-to-Qualify (T2Q) and Train-to-Certify (T2C) concepts, which rely heavily on high-fidelity shore-based trainers. Our simulators integrate LCS command and control, propulsion control, and bridge control systems to support individual training in a team environment at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels.”
Ford enlisted in the Navy in June 2012.
“I joined the Navy to be a part of the greatest team in the world,” he said. “I am proud to be a United States sailor and wear the uniform.”
Before reporting to the LTF, Ford served aboard USS Wasp (LHD-1), stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, where he became a subject matter expert in tactical data links.
“At the LTF, we prepare sailors to execute a wide variety of missions around the world,” Bryan said. “They leave our training facility ready to stand their watch and execute the Navy’s mission.”
Ford is the son of Scott and Gina Ford who reside in Peachtree City, Georgia.
Headquartered in Dahlgren, Virginia, CSCS develops and delivers surface ship combat systems training to achieve surface warfare superiority. CSCS headquarters' staff oversees 14 learning sites and detachments located throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, and Japan and manages and operates a Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) training division in Rota, Spain. CSCS provides over 538 courses, awards 114 different Navy Enlisted Classifications (NECs), and trains over 38,000 Sailors a year.
For more information on CSCS, visit https://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/cscs/ or follow CSCS on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Center-for-Surface-Combat-Systems/1480366868885239