Sony PSPs coming to the Royal Navy

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The Royal Navy will purchase and distribute around 230 Sony PSPs to sailors around the fleet. They will be given to marine warfare engineering techs, and will be loaded with ‘training’ content, like videos about radar, sonar, VHF radio and other communication systems. It’s apart of the Royal Navy’s drive to cut training costs.The Royal Navy went after the PSP because of it’s smaller profile, as it will allow sailors to study in their bunk areas, as opposed to a stack of books which would be cumbersome to store and study with. The educational material will largely be a presentation, with an voice over to go along.

“As soon as people know they are going on a course, they are going to want to get their hands on these as quickly as possible so you can get a heads-up [...]” Royal Navy engineer Chris Colpus told The Times of London. However, that’s not the only reason they’ll want to get their hands on them.

The UMD drive will still be functional in the devices, leading to the possibility that sailors could play games or movies (if anybody had UMD movies) on the devices. “I thought if we don’t disable it, it’ll be better looked after. They are also engineering technicians and would be able to [enable the UMD drive] themselves,” the Navy officer, Mark Williams, told the Times of London.

The shelf cost of 320 PSPs is over £70,000. The Royal Navy is attempting to lower it’s costs to £200 per hour for training programs.