Warfare Officer (Submariner) Training Pipeline - As of April 2011

For those X(SM) candidates going to Sift and AIB, you will need to know your training pipeline in great depth. Unfortunately it's bloody difficult to get ahold of (nigh on impossible). I passed my AIB yesterday so this is your pipeline, accurate as of April 2011;

- 14 weeks at BRNC (Militarisation, culminating in BLD and then ABLE)

- 14 weeks at BRNC (10 weeks IFT, Fleet Board, culminating in MARL and then Passing Out)

- 14 weeks at BRNC (Initial Warfare Officer (Foundation) Course)

- 4 weeks at HMS Collingwood (Warfare Officer's Navigation Course)

- SFT (Specialist Fleet Time - 6-9 months onboard a surface vessel, mainly gaining bridge experience)

- 4 months at HMS Collingwood (Initial Warfare Officers Course)

- 13 weeks at HMS Raleigh with a 2 week stint at HMS Sultan (Submarine Warfare Course - 2 weeks at Sultan is nuclear-specific training)

- 3 months on operations on a Submarine gaining your Dolphins


Good luck!

 

Hi eallan

Were you the one a certain individual asked me about in regards to a confirmation of the training pipeline and I (/those SM's with me here) were quite useless.

If so apologies, but it looks like you know it better then them that's for sure.

 

More to the point, congratualtions Eallan! Good for you!

Here's hoping I'll be joining you soon in the hallowed halls of BRNC... =-)

 

@ OJ - I suspect so! I was quite surprised as to the lack of info available from official sources. Luckily I knew what the Submarine-specific training was and just assumed that it was added onto the end of the GS training.

@ Magda - Thank you! I would give you some advice but I'd only be repeating what is on the AIB thread. All I would say is that you are applying because you know you're good enough for the RN, all you have to do is show it. Good luck for AIB whenever you get a date!

 

I presume this is basically the same pipeline for surface warfare officers?

 

Upto the completion of IWOC, at which point you start your first complement appointment.

 

Okay thanks.

 

Yep GS Warfare is the same just without the Submarine Warfare Course and the posting to a Boat (obviously).

 

Cool, thanks. Though I imagine this might all change if some of the training is done at HMS Raleigh instead of all of it at BRNC.

 

I reckon what could happen is that the first term at BRNC would either be scrapped altogether or significantly abridged. Basically what we would be doing in our 10 weeks at Raleigh is the same training that all Ratings go through. I'm sure the first 14 weeks at Dartmouth are different but the same principles of militarisation would be there. Will be interesting to see what they do, the earliest intake I can get will be September so I might be in the first group to go through the new scheme!

 

Yeah if I restart my application I might be in line for a September intake (was advised I would need to restart it before mid May). What role have you applied for?

 

I've gone for Warfare Officer (Submariner). Yeah I would say definitely get cracking since all you need is an AIB date so you should (if successful) get a September entry. Although be warned - I've heard the PLTs at AIB during the Summer are lethally hot! I was lucky and had a rainy day (and wore bugger all under my ovies) but was still pretty toasty! I take it your going for Warfare (GS)?

 

Aye. I think I will be sweating during the PLT's even if it was -6!

 

PLTs were actually really good fun, I managed to single-handedly cock up our leaderless exercise but my task was a good laugh. Got wet a couple of times too but it's all fun and games!

 

Yeah I think I'm more worried about the tests and rapid question bits!

 

I managed to cock that one up too! Only read the first third of the notes for the planning exercise (stupid, I know) but managed to wing it and pass. The SDT calculations aren't hard it's just about how you deal with pressure. Some on my board were ace when practising and then when the pressure hit they crumbled.

 

Cheers for that, will try and remember that!

 

I'm also a bit anxious about the SDT questions - I'm not a natural number cruncher, I like paper and a pen so I can work things out and check my answers. Heyho, had better get practising my mental arithmetic!

 

Me neither. A good idea is to work out what fractions of an hour are, which means that you would only need to multiply whatever figure you have by the fraction of the hour given. For example, if the question is how far will you travel in 2mins if you are going at 12mph? 12 is one fifth of an hour, so multiply the 2mins by five and the answer is 10 mins! Every night my Dad and I spent about 10 mins of quickfire SDT questions. Really simple ones like my example but it really helped

 

I'll get stick for this, but I'm confused. 10mins = how far you travelled?

Your advice about splitting the hour up into fractions is very useful though! =-)