Background: The Swedish naval specialized boarding element participated in Operation Atalanta in 2013 to mitigate piracy by escorting and protecting ships included in the United Nations World Food Program in the Indian Ocean. We describe the experiences of the Swedish naval specialized boarding-element members during 4 months of international naval hostile duty. Some studies have reported experiences of naval duty for the Coast Guard or the merchant fleet; however, we did not find any studies that identified or described experiences of long-time duty onboard ship for the naval armed forces.

Materials and Methods: The respondents wrote individual notes of daily events while onboard. Conventional content analysis was used on the collected data, using an inductive approach.

Results: The findings revealed three broad themes: military preparedness, coping with the naval context, and handling physical and mental strain. Different categories emerged indicating that the participants need the ability to adapt to the naval environment and to real situations.

Conclusion: The Swedish naval forces should train their specialized element members in coping strategies.

Background: Sweden has been part of Operation Atalanta four times since 2009. Being part of an international naval deployment means acting in a substantially different context and environment. The Swedish Armed Forces leadership training includes the use of Wheelan’s IMGD model, whereby trust is a significant part of group dynamics.

Materials and Methods: Interviews took place after deployment when the respondents had been back in Sweden for 8 months. The constant comparative analysis method according to Glaser was used to answer the aim of the study.

Results: Trust was seen as the core of the interviews and was based on three categories: leadership, preparedness and endurance.

Discussion: The core category trust, and the lack of trust, may be a result of poor preparedness. The respondents expressed that they felt safe and secure within their own group. The “us and them” mentality was an important finding, and the cause should be examined more closely to increase trust and team spirit.

Conclusion: The Swedish Navy could benefit from improvement in education, team building and pre-deployment training to increase trust and the level of readiness and to reduce stress.

Introduction: Stress week was included during training of Special Forces (SF) Operators in Sweden to test their ability and limits for handling stress in different unknown situations and environments at a military training facility in Sweden. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of stress and workload experienced in various tasks during firefighting and military medicine simulation training.

Methods: This pilot study was performed during the second day of stress week. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) is a validated, subjective, and multidimensional assessment tool for rating perceived workload with six subscales: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration. These subscales were used as an indicator of stress experienced. The different tasks were assessed by the SF Operators by rating the NASA-TLX subscales for each task, which were then analyzed and compared using ANOVA.

Results: There was a significant difference between the two simulation exercises assessed by the participants and instructors, and both groups considered firefighting to be more demanding than medical. The participants perceived the mental and physical demands as more demanding in the firefighting exercises, as well as for the level of frustration and effort. However, no differences regarding performance or temporal demands between the simulation exercises were found.

Conclusion: The principle "train as you fight" implies difficult and demanding situations. When exposing Swedish SF Operators to challenging situations, assessment of perceived stress and performance are possible.

The study compared two simulation environments for training of Swedish naval Command and Control teams by using indirect measures, including workload, combat readiness, and situation awareness. The literature explains simulation-based training as providing a safe avenue to practice relevant scenarios. Fidelity, the degree of realism in the simulation, and workload, the equilibrium between demands and assigned tasks, are crucial factors examined in this study of low- and high-fidelity naval simulations. This study was conducted to better understand the effects of various training methods. An experimental design with repeated measures was used with three consecutive escalating parts. The subjective, multidimensional assessment tool, NASA-Task Load Index was used to rate perceived workload. Combat readiness of the ship and mental demand yielded significant results. For combat readiness of the ship, there was a difference between the low and the high-fidelity setting, for the initial part of the scenario p = 0.037 and for the second part p = 0.028. Mental demand was experienced as higher in the low-fidelity setting, p = 0.036. Notably, the simulated internal battle training for onboard command teams in a low-fidelity setting was found to induce a level of stress comparable with that experienced in a high-fidelity setting. The results indicate that low-fidelity training results in a workload not distinguishable from high-fidelity training and has practical implications for increased use of low-fidelity training as part of (naval) command team training programmes.

Simulation-based training (SBT) has a positive effect on learning. The aim of this study was to examine perceived learning of a command and control (C2) team in a Swedish naval exercise conducted in two settings (low and high fidelity). The participants were part of the permanent C2 team onboard a vessel in the Navy and could maintain their ordinary roles during the SBT. A within-group design was used whereby the C2 team first took part in the low-fidelity setting followed by the high-fidelity setting. The questionnaires used in this study were developed based on the learning objectives for the exercise, and questions were asked as statements. The results indicate that SBT may constitute a learning opportunity. The conclusion of the research highlights the same learning effects in a low-fidelity setting.