Black Hawk pilots based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma will visit Whidbey to conduct Navy simulator training over the next year.

“This is a new area we’re getting into,” said Capt. Jesse Paulsboe, public affairs officer for the 16th combat aviation brigade Friday. “It’s very exciting for us.”

The purpose of the training, as part of their annual training plan, is to expand the brigade’s ability to land and maneuver in and around water, Paulsboe said. The brigade ended an eight-month deployment in Afghanistan December.

While live training at NAS Whidbey with the Black Hawks is a possibility, Paulsboe said the Army has other options. Paulsboe said they already use South Puget Sound for over water, night timetraining, and it remains unclear “when or if it’s something we need to do at Whidbey Island.”

“Our intent is to use some of the Navy’s simulators for water training,” Paulsboe said, but as of now no concrete dates have been set.

The move correlates with the Army’s shift in resources to the Pacific Rim, according to The Olympian, and the change diverges from the Army’s traditional role of conducting missions over land while Marine helicopter crews take on challenges at sea.