The State Border Guard Service Maritime Security is on the stage of developing and reforming, preparing to receive the newest ships under the joint Ukrainian-French project, so there is a need for qualified ship commanders.

This year, for the first time, training courses for ship commanders were conducted on the basis of the Maritime Guard Training Center. For this purpose, the traditional training of the commanders of boats has been transformed into a new training program for “The training of commanders of ships (caters of the 1st rank) of the Maritime Security”. It was developed by Anatolii Nikolaienko, a senior Lecturer in the Maritime Guard Training Center.

From now on, the specialists of the ship-and-boat personnel who occupy the positions of commanders of ships, assistants of commanders of ships, and boats of the Maritime Guard can increase their professional competence level at the Maritime Guard Training Center.

The program is designed for 60 hours, most of the time is spent to improve the skills of ship management, tactical maneuvering.

One of the main topics is “Ship Control”, including mooring a ship, anchoring, operating a ship in various conditions, in-depth study of international rules for preventing collisions of ships and many other subtleties of maritime security.

Also, commanders’ qualification requires perfect knowledge of the use of weapons and technical equipment of the ship, tactics of the border guard service, proceedings in administrative offenses and other issues. A total of 19 specialized maritime and 6 general military disciplines were completed by trainees in two weeks.

The training material is refined, taking into account the experience of servicemen - all of them have been serving on the Maritime Guard ships for at least 5 years.

Much attention has been paid to practical lessons. For example, during such lesson as a “Tactical Maneuver”, the tasks are performed by the trainees on the nautical navigation map and on the shunting tablet. It allows to determine as soon as possible whether there is a threat of collision, as well as to make calculations for taking the ship to a safe distance.

According to the results of the training, the first 9 trainees of the command courses from the Odessa, Mariupol and Izmail Maritime Guard Detachments have passed the exams and received the certificates. In the future, the experts who have shown the best qualification results will be prioritized for positions of commanders of ships.