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Ensuring Sailors have the right training at the right time is vital to mission success. At Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport, a group known as the Instructional Technology and Training Branch serves as a one-stop shop for developing, creating and sustaining the state-of-the-art training needed to prepare Sailors for the complexities of the modern Fleet.
The branch is made up of three groups, each responsible for a different stage of the training development process: the Front End Analysis Team, the Instructional Media Development Group and the Material Support Activity.
The process begins with the FEA team, which conducts what Project Lead Jason Karas calls the “crawl” phase of training development. In this phase, the team performs a Manpower and Training Requirements Analysis to identify what Sailors need to know, which Sailors need training and the best way to deliver it. According to Karas, the team's main deliverables are "full Training Needs Analysis for Fleet support." This "crawl" can take up to 18 months to complete due to the detailed analysis required.
Karas emphasized the importance of this phase. "If what a Sailor needs to know is not accurately identified early in the process, training over time will degrade,” he said. “Inevitably, what will happen is Sailors will start losing the ability to fully understand how to operate and maintain a piece of equipment, and then there's a high chance that the mission might not be able to be completed."
During the next phase, known as the “walk,” IMDG creates training materials based on the analysis from FEA. Led by Project Lead Jason Morris, the team produces videos, 360-degree virtual training, and computer-based training such as interactive courseware. According to Morris, almost everyone on the IMDG team is a retired Navy chief, senior chief or master chief, meaning they have firsthand knowledge of the training needs of the Fleet and are well-positioned to address them. While this isn’t a requirement for the job, it is an added bonus.
Lead Videographer Chris Carlson, a senior member of IMDG who spent 20 years on active duty before coming to Keyport, sees his current position as an opportunity to improve on the training products he once used. “On active duty, I was an end user of these types of products for two decades,” he said. “I knew what I liked about them and what I wanted to change, and I’m in a position to effect that change and create something that this generation of Sailor will benefit from.”
The Material Support Activity, led by Project Lead Seth Voyce, handles the final “run” phase of training development, in which his team monitors, maintains, and updates training curricula after they have been created to ensure they remain accurate and relevant. According to Voyce, MSA’s work is a daily, “never-ending” process that involves manually checking for updates across a library of 7,000 publications.
According to Voyce, the FEA, IMDG and MSA together "provide a service to the fleet that is unequaled. They take training that is antiquated and make it state of the art, so Sailors are ready to fight. Our job is to make sure that training is not boring, that it's intuitive, right, fun, and accurate on day one."
Carlson described the ITT Branch as a “hidden gem.”
“When we sit down with potential customers from different Keyport codes, we are routinely told they had no idea we had this capability at Keyport,” said Carlson. “Some of them have said they looked all over the Navy for someone to do this and IMDG was across the street the whole time.”
By ensuring Sailors are well trained to operate and maintain the Fleet's critical undersea warfare systems, the Instructional Technology & Training Branch directly supports the first and fourth Naval Sea System Command Enterprise Lines of Effort: “Generate Readiness” and “Strengthen the Navy Team."
While the branch's primary focus is on naval personnel, its services are also available to Navy civilians. “We can also do training for [Intermediate Maintenance Activity] or Depot-level work if needed,” said Karas.
“We encourage anyone with a new program or emerging technology to contact us,” added Carlson. “Prioritize training and give us a call. New technology is only as good as the people using it, it’s imperative they are trained correctly.”
Check out this YouTube video for a quick visual tour of the work being done at NUWC Division, Keyport’s ITTB: https://youtu.be/raEcryrCtZI.
-KPT-
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport is headquartered in the state of Washington on the Puget Sound, about 10 miles west of Seattle. To provide ready support to Fleet operational forces at all major Navy homeports in the Pacific, NUWC Division, Keyport maintains detachments in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii, and remote operating sites in Guam; Japan; Hawthorne, Nevada; and Portsmouth, Virginia. At NUWC Division, Keyport, our diverse and highly skilled team of engineers, scientists, technicians, administrative professionals and industrial craftsmen work tirelessly to develop, maintain and sustain undersea warfare superiority for the United States.
| Date Taken: | 06.02.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.02.2026 18:15 |
| Story ID: | 566716 |
| Location: | KEYPORT, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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