Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – Instructors at Naval Technical Training Center evaluated the first class of U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms’ students to maneuver through a new Tactical Training Simulator, or TTS, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.
More than a decade in the making, this new facility provides students with a dynamic and realistic training environment to better prepare for the force protection situations they may encounter in the line of duty.
The simulator consists of two small outbuildings: the “ship-in-a-box” and “port operations” units.
As the names suggest, the ship-in-a-box unit simulates the interior of a naval ship, complete with common physical characteristics that Sailors will encounter aboard ship.
U.S. Navy Chief Master-at-Arms Gerardo Oliver, Lead Chief Petty Officer of Training Unit 3, said the watertight doors, steep ladder wells, and narrow passageways in the ship-in-a-box unit affect how security forces respond “to different situations that you might encounter inside … from a barricaded suspect to an active shooter to an active threat.”
Clearing a similar threat in a building on a base or pier requires a different approach. The port operations unit provides wider doorways and normal stairwells for students to practice the different team tactics for clearing a building on a base or pier.
Added to the realism of training in the TTS is the use of non-lethal simunition. These 22-caliber rounds have a paint tip and are used in the same kind of firearms Sailors will use in the fleet, but are much safer with training bolts and magazines that cannot be used with live rounds. This allows the students to get more comfortable with their weapons systems while remaining safe.
Matt Levell, a weapons instructors at NTTC, said “If you’re shooting at a stationary target, that’s not very hard. But if you’re moving, shooting at a moving target, that’s a completely different shooting scenario,” he said. “And it’s even harder when that target is shooting back at you.”
NTTC is a U.S. Navy command at JBSA-Lackland with leadership at the Center for Security Forces in Norfolk , Va., and Naval Education and Training Command in Pensacola, Fla.
(U.S. Air Force video by: Brian G. Rhodes, 502d ABW, Public Affairs)
#jbsa #navy #navytechnicaltrainingcenter #militarylife #securityforces #usnavy #ready
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – Instructors at Naval Technical Training Center evaluated the first class of U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms’ students to maneuver through a new Tactical Training Simulator, or TTS, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.
More than a decade in the making, this new facility provides students with a dynamic and realistic training environment to better prepare for the force protection situations they may encounter in the line of duty.
The simulator consists of two small outbuildings: the “ship-in-a-box” and “port operations” units.
As the names suggest, the ship-in-a-box unit simulates the interior of a naval ship, complete with common physical characteristics that Sailors will encounter aboard ship.
U.S. Navy Chief Master-at-Arms Gerardo Oliver, Lead Chief Petty Officer of Training Unit 3, said the watertight doors, steep ladder wells, and narrow passageways in the ship-in-a-box unit affect how security forces respond “to different situations that you might encounter inside … from a barricaded suspect to an active shooter to an active threat.”
Clearing a similar threat in a building on a base or pier requires a different approach. The port operations unit provides wider doorways and normal stairwells for students to practice the different team tactics for clearing a building on a base or pier.
Added to the realism of training in the TTS is the use of non-lethal simunition. These 22-caliber rounds have a paint tip and are used in the same kind of firearms Sailors will use in the fleet, but are much safer with training bolts and magazines that cannot be used with live rounds. This allows the students to get more comfortable with their weapons systems while remaining safe.
Matt Levell, a weapons instructors at NTTC, said “If you’re shooting at a stationary target, that’s not very hard. But if you’re moving, shooting at a moving target, that’s a completely different shooting scenario,” he said. “And it’s even harder when that target is shooting back at you.”
NTTC is a U.S. Navy command at JBSA-Lackland with leadership at the Center for Security Forces in Norfolk , Va., and Naval Education and Training Command in Pensacola, Fla.
(U.S. Air Force video by: Brian G. Rhodes, 502d ABW, Public Affairs)
#jbsa #navy #navytechnicaltrainingcenter #militarylife #securityforces #usnavy #ready
