Is IC (Interior Communications Electrician) a Good Rating?

AIT / Training

12 weeks

Training Location

Great Lakes, IL

Career Field

Engineering

What the Recruiter Says

You'll maintain the interior communications systems that ships depend on for operations and damage control — the 1MC announcing system, sound-powered phones, gyrocompasses, and the internal electronic networks that connect the bridge to every compartment. It's not a glamorous rating, but when the 1MC fails during an emergency, the IC tech is suddenly the most important person on the ship. The electronic maintenance breadth covers shipboard communications, navigation instruments, and internal systems that develop genuine troubleshooting skills. Commercial maritime electronics maintenance, building management systems, and industrial communications infrastructure careers are accessible, and the USCG licensing pathway for commercial vessel electronics is open to IC veterans.

What It's Actually Like

IC is the rate that owns every communications system that stays inside the ship, which is a more complete description of your career than it sounds. The sound-powered phone system — which is exactly what it sounds like and runs on no external power — is your domain, along with the general announcing system (1MC), the gyrocompass systems, the steering gear, and the ship's interior control circuits. General quarters means your systems are what allows the bridge to talk to damage control, CIC to talk to engineering, and the CO to know if the ship is being fought or sinking. You will trace cable runs through spaces that were designed before the systems that use them, hunt intermittent faults in wiring that has been aboard since the ship was commissioned, and maintain a gyrocompass system on a gas turbine destroyer that requires alignment precision measured in fractions of a degree. The civilian maritime industry values IC skills for merchant vessels and passenger ships where interior communications systems require the same institutional knowledge. Shore installations need IC technicians for their communication infrastructure. The industrial controls background translates to building automation and facilities management. It is not a flashy rate. The ship does not work without you, which is the only endorsement that matters.