VSTEP has officially launched its Advanced Fire Fighting Simulator (AFF) for shipboard incidents. According to the company, the AFF simulator enables participants to experience and train any incident on board a ship first-hand and is built to fully support and comply to the STCW Advanced Fire Fighting courses.
The company said it conducted an extensive trial period and pilot sessions with professional AFF instructors and crews before the launch.
The simulator includes functionality, environments, emergency equipment and objects that are common to specific types of shipboard incidents and essential for STCW compliant AFF Training, including watertight doors, fire flaps, and many more.
According to VSTEP, the compact and modular form factor of the simulator allows it to be used almost anywhere and can be setup according to training requirements and team size. A typical setup includes an instructor station and training stations for the on-scene commander and fire team leaders.
During simulator training, the participants in the simulator assess the situation and determine the best response strategy. They then implement it and immediately observe the consequences of their decisions in real-time in the simulator. The simulator allows users to try out different response strategies for an incident in a safe, controlled environment.
An instructor is in full control during the training and can influence the scenario for the participants in the simulator during the exercise. Instructors can also build any on board incident scenario using the instructor toolbox.
As an additional feature, the RescueSim AFF simulator can be also be linked with VSTEP’s NAUTIS ship bridge simulators for additional incident command training of ship bridge personnel.
VSTEP is an ISO 9001:2008 certified developer of simulators and virtual training software.
The company has several core product lines, focusing on virtual incident command simulators for first responders (RescueSim), maritime simulator solutions for the civilian and military maritime industry (NAUTIS), training simulators to prepare camera operators to identify suspect human behavior before a crime or terrorist attack takes place (EyeObserve) and Crowd Control Trainers providing police commanders and training managers with an effective training tool for crowd-related incidents and demonstrations (Crowd Control Trainer).
