Marine warfare engineering technicians were the first the receive the devices, and if proved useful they will be distributes around other personnel
Photo: GETTY The Sony PlayStation
Portables (PSPs), which are blue and worth £120 each, are a practical solution for Navy officers who need to swot up on their maths and physics from a bunk bed in the middle of an Atlantic storm.
Marine warfare engineering technicians, who maintain the fleet’s radar, sonar, VHF radio and communications systems, were the first the receive the devices, and if proved useful they will be distributes around other personnel.
Published: 7:16AM GMT 27 Nov 2009
The idea was developed at the maritime warfare school at HMS Collingwood in Fareham, Hampshire, in response to figures that showed a quarter of ratings were dropping out to retake courses.
The consoles are preloaded with study packages, comprising slides and commentary prepared by instructors, compacted into “bursts” of between eight and twelve minutes each.
Lieutenant-Commander Mark “Beasty” Williams, who developed the programme, told The Times: “On most ships, the space people have is quite small. Many have bunks with just a couple of feet above. This is the sort of thing that can be used in a bunk space.”
So far, the weapons engineering school has bought 230 consoles, spending £50,000 including programme development.
