Specials

Special Groton Submarine officer gains unique insight into diesel submarine command

By:JO1 (SW/AW) Mark A. Savage 10/09/2003, first published in The Dolphin.

 

PART I

The Frigate HNLMS Witte de With was one of several ships the Perisher students spotted through the periscope during the six-month long course between March and June 2003.

The prospective executive officer of the Pre-commissioning Unit Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), Lt. Cmdr. Todd Cloutier, accomplished something very exceptional for American naval officers. He passed the Netherlands Submarine Command Course (NLSMCC), known as the Perisher. According to Cloutier, the Perisher course involves some of the toughest training a submariner can receive. This command qualifying course teaches the students tactics to charge harder in completing their missions, while at all times keeping the eye on safety.
Cloutier studied under the NLSMCC from March 3 to June 29, 2003. The course runs once each year, simultaneous to the British Perisher course to accommodate a variety of exercises between the two classes.

The Frigate HNLMS Witte de With was one of several ships the Perisher students spotted through the periscope during the six-month long course between March and June 2003. (Photo: © Lt. Cmdr. Todd Cloutier).

The U.S. Navy will continue to send three submarine officers per year through the course, one in the Netherlands and two in the United Kingdom, to gain a broader understanding of submarine command and bring that knowledge back to the United States Navy.

"We try to get into the mind of diesel submariners and think the way they think, because that's one of the threats facing our Navy today," Cloutier said. "As modern SSN operations are increasingly focused on operations in the littoral and in close proximity to surface contacts, the skills practiced in the Perisher have become more relevant. The periscope employment and inshore navigation techniques the U.S. has recently been developing are already well established routines on board United Kingdom and Netherlands submarines."

The knowledge Cloutier and other U.S. naval officers gain from attending the course will benefit future submariners as the American Perisher graduates impart what they have learned on their own submarine crews.
When asked what was the most important thing he took away from the course, Cloutier responded, "in a word...perspective. We often focus heavily on methodology, and we need to remember that sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution."

He was only the second U.S. naval officer to attend the NLSMCC, and even though he was excited about attending the course, the stories he heard made him more than a little apprehensive about it as well.
"There's an element of legendary reputation to overcome from the outset," Cloutier said. "It's touted in just about every submarine history as the toughest training a submariner can get."
But Cloutier had the support of the first U.S. student who passed the British Perisher course, in July 2002, to help put him at ease. Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Mack, from Naval Submarine School, gave Cloutier advice to help him get through the course.

"I told Lt. Cmdr. Cloutier that the course was extremely challenging and rewarding, he would need to work extremely hard, and that it was critical for the guys on the course to form an efficient warfighting team to make it through," Mack said. "The keys to passing are self confidence, communications skills, planning, critical self-assessments, hard work, understanding and recognizing your critical weaknesses, and an ability to work with and motivate a team - all things that we do in the U.S. Navy."

Even with the advice from Mack, Cloutier still found himself at a disadvantage in three distinct areas when compared to his classmates.  Cloutier speaks American English, but the course is taught in the Queen's English, so he had to learn proper English commands in order to make his orders understandable to the Dutch crew, who are trained to specific English commands. He never served as an executive officer, but his classmates, two from the Netherlands, two from Australia and one from Denmark, had already completed their tours as submarine executive officers.
Third, the Netherlands course is taught using diesel submarines, while the British Perisher is taught using nuclear submarines. His classmates all had experience serving in the diesel fleet. Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands use diesel subs in their navies. Cloutier's only experience came from the nuclear submarine force.

But Cloutier did not go into the course completely unprepared. Before starting the Perisher, he received a three-week indoctrination into diesel submarines through the Royal Australian Navy at the HMAS Stirling, Fleet Base West in Garden Island, Australia.

"The Australians were generous hosts and went out of their way to make sure I was well prepared," Cloutier said. "I spent the first week with Cmdr. Ian Salter, an experienced commanding officer now on their squadron staff. He took the time to run me through the basic periscope drills in 'Brit-speak' and talked me through the Perisher course expectations, inshore operations, and answered all the questions I could muster."

Additionally, Cloutier spent several hours in the attack centre during his first week to observe a Collins-class submarine crew's work-ups to become familiar with their routine actions. During the second week, he, along with classmates Lt. Cmdr. Glen Miles and Lt. Cmdr. Mark Hammond, both from the Royal Australian Navy, practiced periscope safety in the trainer. In the final week, Cloutier learned about chart preparation, navigation and other elements involved with inshore operations.

"It was three weeks of drinking from the proverbial fire hose, and likely the three weeks that made the biggest contribution to a successful outcome of my Perisher experience," Cloutier said. "The experience I gained was important, but more important was the confidence I had in facing a known challenge vice confronting a legend."
As legends go, some Perisher instructors often had a reputation for their mercilessness, according to Cloutier, but the instructors were the bottom line when it came to making safe submarine captains. Formally known by the one word title: "Teacher," their chains of command picked them for this assignment, because they trust them to make a safe captain who can get the job done.

"At first my impression was pure fear just because of the reputation of the Teachers," Cloutier said. "But our Teacher was quite reasonable. He told us from the outset that 'the only thing that will get you gone is if you lose the eye on safety. If I don't have confidence in your ability to safely conduct the operations, you're gone.'"
The first half of the course focused on safety training. The class started in the attack trainer going through 50 runs each as duty captain of their submarine during a four-week period. The purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate the submarine's "go-deep" circle and the submarine commander's responsibility to react when a surface ship encroaches on that circle. This circle around the submarine represents an area which surface ships are not allowed to enter. If the ships enter this circle, they could run the submarine over before it has time to submerge and allow the ship to pass safely overhead.

The students had to use the periscope, stadimeters and numerous stopwatches (one for each surface ship) to calculate ranges, distances, speeds and drafts of the ships and determine at what point the submarine should go deep to avoid contact with the ships.
When not acting as the duty captain (DCO), they manned the fire control, plotting, and periscope positions in the trainer. Additionally, the students were responsible for tracking up to five ships passing overhead during the trainer exercises.

While underway on the HNLMS Bruinvis, off the coast of Norway, they were only responsible for tracking three ships: a Dutch and Danish frigate and a Danish patrol boat. But according to Cloutier, three contacts at sea were noticeably different than five contacts in the trainer.

"With only three ships instead of five, it was still a lot harder due to the complexities added by real weather, sea state, real stadimeter imaging and pulling that heavy periscope around without torque assist," Cloutier said.
During the week-long at-sea period, the students each conducted 20 exercises each as duty captain and 20 as attack coordinator, but did not have to man any of the other positions.

At the end of that week they returned to Holland, exhausted but excited after passing the first phase of the course.
"I though that this would be the hard part of Perisher, but it was more like a work-up for the tactical phase," Cloutier said. "The safety phase skills are important, and best of all, it made contact management and periscope handling almost a reflex, allowing us to focus on more important things like tactical decision making."
In next week's issue of The Dolphin, Cloutier and his classmates will put to the test everything they learned during the safety phase as they enter the tactical phase of the Perisher course. They'll each have to learn how to prepare and accomplish an entire mission from beginning to end before they can graduate from the Perisher.

PART II

The U.S. Navy is full of challenges, ranging from different command positions and special duty assignments to numerous educational opportunities, both in the United States and abroad. Lt. Cmdr. Todd Cloutier, the prospective executive officer of Precommissioning Unit Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), was in the midst of one of those educational opportunities while he was attending the Netherlands Submarine Command Course (NLSMCC), known as the Perisher between March 3 and June 29, 2003. Cloutier successfully completed the safety phase of the course, which involved periscope safety and the submarine's "go-deep" circle.

Cmdr. Marc Elsensohn (right), Dutch Navy, "Teacher" for the Netherlands Submarine Command Course, known as the Perisher, presents Lt. Cmdr. Todd Cloutier with a certificate after Cloutier completed the Perisher course on June 29, 2003

During this phase, the students had to use the periscope, stadimeters and numerous stopwatches (one for each surface ship) to calculate ranges, distances, speeds and drafts of the ships and determine at what point the submarine should go deep to avoid contact with those ships.

Cloutier and his classmates took all they learned from the first phase of the course as they to entered the tactical phase.
The tactical phase of the Perisher involved extensive chart preparations, preparation of operations briefings and half-day "mini-missions" in the attack trainer to evaluate how well they prepared for their missions.
"We had to prepare the whole mission on the chart, and think through how we're going to get it done safely," Cloutier said. "Then we went into the trainer to see if the plan was worth anything."

Each student conducted three "mini-missions" as the duty captain, executing their plans under the watchful eyes of their instructor, Cmdr. Marc Elsensohn, from the Royal Netherlands Navy. Formally known to his students by the one word title "Teacher," he looked for ways to challenge his students, such as putting a frigate or a fishing vessel on their planned track, as they carried out their missions.

"Now we have to wing it and make a new plan while looking through the periscope after a week of planning, then he'd put a frigate or a helicopter where he knew we'd put our alternate plan to make us think, watch us react and see how we handle the additional stress," Cloutier said. "There may be a point where you say this mission cannot be safely done, and I'm going to sit in this box until things clear up. We all got to that point at least once because that was one of Teacher's tests. You're really focused on getting the mission done, but what if you can't, what do you do? It was definitely a no-win scenario, but the win is if you get out alive and safe. That was the ultimate goal, to ensure that you can be a safe submarine commander."

Following three weeks of "mini-missions" in the trainer, the class travelled to Portsmouth, United Kingdom (U.K.), to attend the two-week long Maritime Warfare Course. There they learned about the U.K. command estimate model for operations planning.

"While the course was beneficial and gave us an opportunity to enjoy the company of the U.K. Perishers and several other submariners," Cloutier said, "we took advantage of the evenings to get ahead on chart preparations for the tactical sea phase and enjoy a few local pubs."
The class then returned to Holland to finish up the final trainer sessions, and prepare for the four-week, at-sea tactical phase.

 

 

Related pages

Eighteen Hours of Perisher

Submarine Command Course

Unique insight

Diesels or Nukes

SMCC impressions of a USN student

Daring to go Dutch

Aussie duo conquer Perisher challenges

Australian Navy Perisher graduates

	Home	Classes	Boats	Tenders	News	Export
	R&D	Men	Books	Pictures	Links
	Models	M-media	Specials	Forum	Search	Help US !
	Copyright © 1997-2006 - Design and content DutchSubmarines.com