The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has selected BAE Systems for the development and delivery of training for the landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships.

The company will provide training using simulation and virtual scenarios including avatars for the crew to communicate with the LHD environment.

BAE Systems Maritime director Harry Bradford said that training also included familiarising personnel with simulating emergency procedures and failure modes.

“With training commencing prior to delivery of the first ship, the flexibility of being able to train and familiarise defence forces at their home bases represents substantial cost savings for the Commonwealth,” he added.

The simulator programmes can be used for all future training programmes on AWDs, ANZACs and FFGs.

The first training packages are expected to be delivered in 2013.