Following the closure of the coastal firing range, 20/30mm and GPMG naval weapons students are trained using a simulation facility. Using VR techniques, including the latest head-mounted display technology, weapons students are able to undertake realistic firing exercises, engaging targets as if located on an actual Royal Navy vessel. The VR GPMG trainers utilise an inert version of the actual weapon, so students continue to handle equipment that has a “look and feel” of the real operational setting. Even the sounds of the weapons are similar to those experienced in reality, as the student is played real-time recordings of ordnance discharge from stereospeakers. Perhaps the only difference between VR and real life firing is the lack of recoil, although this is simulated visually.

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