Skip to main content
HonestMOS
●InvestigationsHow EUCOM shelved a tax break for 9,000 troops in Poland — for five years.→
←Back to FT Fire Control Technician — overview, pay, training, civilian translation, reviews
FTE1-E3

Fire Control Technician

E-1 to E-3 (Junior Enlisted) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) at Naval Submarine Base New London (Groton, CT) is the gate before anything else — roughly eight weeks that screen for the physical and psychological demands of submarine life before you ever see a fire control console. BESS is not A School; it is the submarine qualification that says you can be inside a pressure hull underway. Fail BESS or wash back, and the fire control technician pipeline pauses while the Navy figures out what to do with you. Arrive prepared to swim, to work in confined spaces, and to memorize emergency procedures before the first week is out.

The Honest MOS Read
You chose one of the longest and most selective pipelines in the enlisted Navy. The Fire Control Technician rating exists only in the submarine force — there is no surface-ship FT, no shore-billet FT2 in a warehouse somewhere, no National Guard weekend-warrior equivalent. The entire community is submarines, and submarines are a world that operates on qualification, not seniority. After Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, you report to Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut for Basic Enlisted Submarine School — BESS. Eight weeks. You will learn submarine systems at the conceptual level: ballast and trim, propulsion, atmosphere control, damage control, and escape procedures. You will spend time in the submarine escape trainer. You will be evaluated for the claustrophobic and psychological tolerances the community requires. A meaningful percentage of accessions wash back or are reclassified during BESS; do not arrive assuming the recruiter's enthusiasm about your ASVAB scores guarantees you complete it. Following BESS, FT A School covers the fire control technician's core technical curriculum — fire control system architecture, the processing chain that takes sonar contact data through fire control solution generation to the firing panel, torpedo tube mechanical systems, and the weapons-handling procedures that govern every movement of ordnance on a submarine. The school is at Groton; the length of the pipeline evolves with system updates, so verify the current course duration through NETC or your command. You graduate with enough foundation to be useful to a senior FT — not enough to sit the fire control console unsupervised, not close. When you check aboard your first boat as an FTSN or SR, the Submarine Warfare qualification — earning your Dolphins — is the single professional objective that defines the next twelve to eighteen months of your life. The qual card is a structured walk through the entire submarine: every space, every system, every damage-control evolution, every emergency procedure. You do not earn Dolphins by passing a test. You earn them by demonstrating to qualified submarine sailors — in person, face to face — that you understand the boat well enough to respond correctly when something goes wrong in any compartment. The qualification process is intentionally hard and intentionally thorough because a submarine casualty at depth does not allow for confusion. While you are on the qual card, your daily work in the fire control division is observation, assisted maintenance, and PQS line items. You are assigned to qualified FTs for guided work — preventive maintenance on torpedo tube mechanisms, observation of fire control watches, and the administrative tasks of a division that is always tracking weapons-handling certification currency. You are not standing watches alone. You are not touching the fire control system without a qualified operator present. The LPO is watching whether your qual card is on schedule, whether you show up on time, and whether the questions you ask are getting smarter over the months. Hot-racking policies vary by hull and crew; fast-attack boats have different berthing arrangements than boomers. The boat's schedule — patrol, upkeep, pre-deployment workup — dictates the rhythm of your life more than any personal preference. When the boat is underway, the FT division's watch bill runs continuously. You are on it. The submarine community's OPSEC standard is not a formality; what happens on the boat, what the boat carries, where it operates, and when it deploys is information that leaves the pier with exactly the authorization level it requires. One careless sentence to a friend or on social media about patrol timing is a reportable incident.
Career Arc
  • 01Check aboard as FTSN/SR; receive qual card from LCPO; begin submarine qualification walks within the first week — every day without active PQS progress is a day the LCPO is watching.
  • 02Complete BESS damage-control and emergency-procedure qualifications as the foundation of the Submarine Warfare qual package.
  • 03Earn at least one fire control watch-standing qualification in progress before the Dolphins board — the submarine qual and the FCS qualifications run in parallel, not sequentially.
  • 04Pin Submarine Warfare (Dolphins) within the LCPO's timeline — typically twelve months or less for motivated FTSNs; the timeline is calibrated to the boat's schedule, not a fixed calendar.
  • 05Following Dolphins, complete the first fire control watch-standing qualification and begin the path toward FT3 NWAE eligibility.
  • 06Participate in at least one torpedo load/offload or tube maintenance evolution as a certified team member before FT3 advancement.
  • 07Begin the NWAE study cycle for FT3 advancement — pull the current Bibliography for Advancement from MyNavyHR/NETC and build a study plan, not a stack of PDFs.
Common Screwups
  • ×Blank-checking the submarine qualification card — getting signatures without walking the spaces and understanding what you signed for. The XO who discovers a Sailor's damage-control knowledge gaps during a real casualty does not ask whether the qual card says 'complete.'
  • ×Talking about the boat's operations, schedule, patrol area, or weapons loadout off the boat — to family, in a bar, on social media. One incident is a command investigation and a potential career-ender in a community where your security clearance is your job.
  • ×Financial problems that delay or complicate the security clearance adjudication. The FT rating requires at minimum a Secret clearance; a clearance held up by undisclosed debt, delinquent accounts, or foreign contacts is a disqualifier the command counselor cannot fix after the fact.
  • ×A DUI, NJP, or civilian arrest record during the pipeline or the first boat tour. The submarine community is small enough that a single legal incident at E-1 through E-3 ends the FT path and often the submarine path entirely.
  • ×Treating OPSEC violations as minor administrative issues. The submarine warfare community enforces OPSEC at a standard calibrated to classified operations; an OPSEC breach that would be a counseling statement in another community is an investigation and potentially a criminal matter here.

A Day in the Life

  • 0530Wake, shower, muster for morning quarters on the pier or on deck (schedule and location vary by whether the boat is in port, at the pier, or in upkeep — if underway, the watch rotation has already replaced the quarters formation).
  • 0600–0630Morning quarters: attendance, uniform inspection, plan of the day read by the COB or section chief. The weapons department LCPO uses this time to announce maintenance evolutions, qualification sign-off opportunities, and any safety reminders from the previous day.
  • 0630–0800Physical training — submarine commands typically PT in the morning before the maintenance day begins. Standard Navy PRT components plus unit-level fitness standards; the boat's schedule determines frequency and intensity.
  • 0800–0830Division muster: FT LPO or section chief assigns the day's maintenance tasks. As FTSN, you receive a specific assisted-maintenance assignment — likely accompanying a qualified FT on a scheduled PM evolution — or a PQS walk-through with a designated qualifier.
  • 0830–1130Morning maintenance: torpedo tube scheduled PM, fire control equipment checks, or assisted corrective maintenance under a qualified FT. Everything logged in the 3-M system; discrepancies written up before the evolution closes.
  • 1130–1300Lunch — on the boat or at the galley ashore depending on upkeep status. Submarine food is notoriously good by military standards; the galley is not the punishment it is on some surface ships.
  • 1300–1430PQS study period or scheduled qualification walk-through: the LCPO or section chief tracks which FTSNs are using this time productively and which are not. If a qualified Sailor is available for a sign-off, this is the window to use it.
  • 1430–1600Afternoon maintenance or training evolution: safety training, weapons-handling certification drill, or continued work on the morning maintenance package. If an emergency drill is scheduled, this window is the most common slot.
  • 1600–1700End-of-day cleanup: restore work spaces, stow tools and materials, verify maintenance logs are complete and accurate, brief section chief on status of any open work.
  • 1700–1900Personal time, unless duty section is assigned. Duty section on a submarine in port involves ongoing watch rotations and availability for emergencies — the duty FT may be called to the torpedo room for any maintenance discrepancy that comes up overnight.
  • 1900–2100NWAE study, PQS review, or qual card preparation for the next day's scheduled sign-offs. The FTSNs who advance on the first eligible cycle are the ones who treat evenings as study time, not free time.
  • 2100–2200Wind down; lights out in berthing. If underway, this block is replaced entirely by the watch rotation — three-section or port-and-starboard watches depending on the boat's manning.

Weekly Cadence

A week in port during a standard upkeep period follows a predictable rhythm: morning PT, quarters, maintenance, and afternoon training with evenings for personal time and study. The maintenance schedule is driven by the boat's 3-M schedule — preventive maintenance requirement cards are due on specific cycles, and the section chief tracks completion. The FTSN's week is heavily structured around whoever the LPO assigns them to shadow and whatever PQS sign-offs can be scheduled. The week changes significantly when the boat enters a pre-deployment workup or a surge period. The tempo of maintenance increases, equipment certification deadlines compress, and the qual card timeline becomes a command-level metric the XO reviews. During a workup, an FTSN who is behind on the qual card is visible to the department head, not just the LPO. The social pressure to perform is real and the workload is genuinely higher — a FTSN carrying both PQS requirements and an increasing maintenance tempo will feel the weight. Underway, the week loses most of its port-based structure and replaces it with the watch rotation. Three-section watches mean eight hours on, sixteen off — in theory. In practice, watch-standing, maintenance, and PQS work fill most of the off-watch time, and sleep is what remains. The FTSNs who manage their sleep and physical readiness during a patrol are the ones who arrive home with their qual card ahead of schedule and their watch qualifications progressing. The ones who treat underway time as survival mode arrive behind.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Complete every section of the submarine qualification card on the LCPO's timeline — every space, every system, every damage-control evolution.
    Walk the boat actively, not passively. When a qualified Sailor signs a PQS section, the expectation is that you can demonstrate the knowledge in that section cold — not recite it from memory in a controlled setting, but walk to the location, identify the system, and explain its function and its failure mode. The FTSNs who complete the qual card in ten months are the ones who use every port call and every upkeep period to schedule sign-offs with qualified crew, not the ones who wait for the LPO to schedule them.
  2. 02
    Assist qualified FTs with preventive maintenance on torpedo tube outer door mechanisms, breech door assemblies, tube pressurization systems, and FCS equipment per the applicable maintenance instruction manual.
    Read the maintenance requirement card (MRC) before you show up to the evolution. The qualified FT running the PM does not want to narrate the procedure to you in real time — they want a helper who has read the steps and can hand the right tool before being asked. The 3-M maintenance management system is how the Navy tracks what was done, by whom, and when; your entries must be complete, legible, and accurate, because the Safety Investigation Board reads the maintenance log, not the verbal explanation.
  3. 03
    Learn the fire control system architecture — the processing chain from sonar contact data through fire control solution to firing panel command — at the conceptual level.
    The FT A School curriculum gives you the foundation; your job in the first twelve months is to anchor that foundation to the specific system installed on your hull. Ask your FT2 or FT3 to walk you through the system as it actually exists on your boat — the school version and the fleet version have differences. Study the applicable technical manual sections that cover system overview and operating modes; read them with a qualified FT who can point to the hardware while you read the description.
  4. 04
    Maintain personal watch-standing discipline: show up on time, relieve the watch correctly, stay awake, ask questions through the chain of command, and document every discrepancy you are directed to log.
    On a submarine, a late watch relief is not a professionalism problem — it is a safety problem the off-going watchstander cannot resolve by leaving. Arriving to the watch position early, conducting a proper relief briefing, and staying mentally present for the entire watch are the baseline expectations. The FTSNs who build a reputation for reliable watch-standing in the first year get assigned to the more complex watch evolutions sooner; the ones who are late or drowsy get tracked by the section leader.
  5. 05
    Study and apply OPSEC standards for submarine operations.
    The submarine force's OPSEC requirements are more stringent than most surface Navy communities because the operational security of a submarine's patrol area, schedule, and weapons loadout is directly tied to mission effectiveness and crew safety. The standard is not 'don't post classified information' — it is 'don't discuss the boat's schedule or operations with anyone not read in, full stop.' If you are uncertain whether something is sensitive, the answer is: it is. Ask your chain of command before you say it.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • Submarine qualification (PQS) card issued at your first command
    This is the primary professional document of the first twelve to eighteen months. It is not a checklist — it is a knowledge contract with the submarine community. Every section you sign for is a section the XO, the COB, and the weapons officer expect you to be able to demonstrate under pressure. Treat the card as a study guide, not a bureaucratic requirement.
  • NAVSEA OD 45845 — Submarine Weapons and Ordnance System Safety Manual (verify current publication number with your weapons officer)
    This is the safety governance document for every torpedo tube and weapons-handling evolution you participate in on a submarine. At FTSN, you are not making safety decisions — you are following the procedures established in documents like this one. Understanding the safety architecture early means you are not confused when a qualified FT calls a hold on an evolution because a procedure step was skipped.
  • Fire control system technical manuals for the installed FCS on your hull (verify with your division officer)
    The system overview and operating modes sections of the applicable FCS technical manual are the reading that bridges A School conceptual knowledge to the specific hardware on your boat. Your division officer or LPO will identify the applicable manual volumes; read the system description sections before you are certified to operate anything.
  • NAVPERS 18068 Vol II — Manual of Navy Enlisted Manpower and Personnel Classifications (FT rate entries)
    Read the FT rate NEC entries so you understand the career branching points — which NECs open which billets, which billets lead to advanced qualifications, and what the senior enlisted FT community looks like from a structural standpoint. The career counselor conversation will come before you expect it.
  • NWAE Bibliography for Advancement (BIB) for FT3 — pull from MyNavyHR/NETC
    The BIB is the NWAE test material. Pull it for the FT3 exam cycle as soon as you check aboard and start familiarizing yourself with the subject areas — not because you will take the exam this cycle, but because the FT3 material maps directly to the qualifications you are building in the first year.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Submarine qualification (Dolphins) on the LCPO's timeline — typically within twelve months of checking aboard for motivated FTSNs.
    Schedule sign-offs proactively — do not wait for the LPO to manage your qual card for you. Identify which qualified Sailors in the division can sign which sections, ask them directly, and follow up. The FTSNs who complete the qual card on schedule are the ones who treat it as the primary professional obligation, not a task to manage around watch-standing and maintenance.
  • Zero safety violations during torpedo tube and weapons-handling evolutions.
    Follow procedure. Every step, every time, regardless of how many times you have done it before. Submarines do not allow recovery from a weapons-handling safety violation the way a surface ship might; the consequences of a mistake in the torpedo room are catastrophic and irreversible. If a step does not feel right, stop and ask the qualified team leader — stopping is the correct action, not proceeding and hoping.
  • Watch-standing qualification on at least one fire control system position in progress, with milestones on the LCPO's plan.
    Identify the first watch qualification in your progression path with your LPO or the section chief early — before the Dolphins board if the schedule allows. Begin studying the applicable technical manual sections and operating procedures for that watch position. The FTSNs who have a fire control watch qualification in progress when they pin Dolphins are the ones who advance to FT3 on the first competitive cycle.
  • Security clearance requirements processed and adjudicated without delays.
    Be proactive and completely honest on every security clearance form. Undisclosed foreign contacts, financial delinquencies, or legal history that surfaces during adjudication is worse than the same information disclosed upfront. If anything changes in your personal situation — finances, foreign contacts, legal incidents — report it to your security manager before it becomes a discovered omission.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Treating the submarine qualification card as a signature collection exercise.
    The XO who discovers that an FT's damage-control knowledge does not match the completed qual card during a real emergency or a command inspection investigation does not write a counseling statement — the COB and the weapons officer are in the conversation, and the qualification may be revoked and restarted.
  • Failing to report a weapons system discrepancy because you are not sure it matters.
    In a fire control or torpedo tube system, unreported discrepancies are the category that appears in Safety Investigation Board findings. Report what you observe to the qualified senior immediately; let the qualified personnel make the determination of severity.
  • Discussing submarine operations, patrol schedules, or weapons system capabilities off the boat.
    One careless sentence about patrol timing, weapons loadout, or operating area to someone not read in is a reportable OPSEC incident. Depending on the specifics and the chain of events, it can result in NJP, loss of clearance, removal from the submarine community, and criminal referral.
  • Showing up late to relieve the watch.
    The off-going watchstander cannot leave the position until properly relieved; a late relief forces the previous watch-stander to stay beyond their watch period, which ripples through the entire watch rotation and surfaces in the section leader's report. On a submarine underway, watch-standing discipline is a readiness and safety standard, not a courtesy.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Continue the submarine FT path or request a lateral transfer out of submarines.
    BESS is designed to surface reservations early, but some Sailors who make it through BESS and FT A School discover that submarine life — confined spaces, long deployments, hot-racking, the intensity of the qualification culture — is not what they want long-term. The option to request a transfer out of submarines exists, but the timing and mechanism involve the detailing process and the command's endorsement. If you have genuine reservations about the submarine path, the honest conversation with the career counselor at the twelve-month mark is far better than waiting until the re-enlistment window. The FT rating exists only in submarines; leaving submarines means reclassifying to a different rating.
  • Surface-warfare NEC or submarine-only career path.
    At this tier the decision is not yet active — you are fully committed to the submarine pipeline — but the NEC branching that begins at FT2 and FT1 will be shaped by choices you make on the first boat. FTs who build depth on the fire control system, earn advanced qualifications early, and perform well in weapons-handling evolutions are the ones who get the NEC assignments and school slots that expand the career options at mid-career. The FT who coasts through the minimum requirements at FTSN and FT3 often finds that the good NEC assignments have already been allocated to their peers.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Fast-attack submarine (SSN)
    The majority of FT accessions go to fast-attack boats — Los Angeles class, Virginia class. Fast-attacks are smaller crews (roughly 130 on a Los Angeles, fewer on a Virginia), which means the FT division is small and the FTSN is visible to the whole weapons department from day one. The qualification culture is intense; fast-attack submarines operate at high tempo with frequent patrols and deployments.
  • Ballistic missile submarine (SSBN — 'boomer')
    FTs on boomers spend significant time on the fire control systems associated with the strategic deterrence mission — a distinct operational profile from the attack submarine world. Boomers run blue/gold crew rotations with roughly three months deployed alternating with three months in refit. The pace is different from fast-attack: more predictable rotation schedule, different qualification emphasis. The SSBN fire control mission is strategically significant and operationally distinct.
  • Submarine Warfare Officer candidate (LDO/CWO path)
    The FT rating is one of the submarine force's pipelines into Limited Duty Officer (LDO) and Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) programs focused on submarine weapons systems. FTSNs who perform exceptionally in the first boat tour and build the record — Dolphins, advanced fire control qualifications, strong evaluations — are positioned for the LDO/CWO packet that opens at the FT1 or CPOFT tier. Knowing this path exists should shape how you build your record from the first day.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good FTSN is the Sailor the LPO assigns to shadow the FT2 on the torpedo tube preventive maintenance evolution because the PQS card is on schedule, the qual sign-offs are honest, and the submarine safety rules are not being negotiated. When qualified FTs ask questions during the qual card walk, the FTSN's answers reflect actual knowledge of the space — not a recited memorization. The questions the FTSN asks during and after evolutions are getting more specific and more technically precise over the months. By the nine-month mark, the FTSN who is performing is the one the section chief mentions to the division officer as ahead of pace — not ahead because of a single impressive moment, but ahead because the qual card milestones are tracking, the maintenance log entries are clean, and the watch-standing behavior is reliable enough that the FT2 on watch calls for the FTSN when there is something to show rather than something to supervise. The observable marker that separates the FTSN who will advance quickly from the one who will stall is whether they are using the time between scheduled evolutions to study or waiting to be pointed at the next task. The submarine fire control community is a technical community; the FTs who built technical curiosity early are the ones the weapons officer and the chief both name when a training opportunity or an advanced qualification opens up at FT3.

Preview — The Next Rank

At FT3 (E-4), the qualification badge on your chest changes the conversation. With Dolphins pinned and at least one fire control watch qualification in progress, you transition from 'the FTSN on the qual card' to a petty officer the division officer trusts at a watch station. The work is still heavily execution-focused — maintaining the fire control system, running torpedo tube PM, training FTSNs through PQS — but the expectation of technical ownership increases sharply. The NWAE for FT2 becomes the professional drumbeat of the FT3 tour. The BIB is the test; building a structured study plan with the LCPO's milestone tracking is the difference between advancing to FT2 on the first eligible cycle and watching peers pin ahead of you. At FT3, the social comparison to peers becomes real — who is advancing, who is earning advanced qualifications, whose name the chief mentions to the weapons officer. The FT3 who treats that pressure as motivation will be looking at FT2 anchors inside two years.
FAQ

FT E1-E3 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E1-E3 FT (Fire Control Technician) actually do?
Before you ever stand a productive watch in the fire control division, you survive the pipeline — Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) in Groton plus the FT A School covering fire control systems and torpedo tube machinery — and then you check aboard your first boat as someone the LPO assigns to PQS work and guided observation.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E1-E3 FT?
Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) at Naval Submarine Base New London (Groton, CT) is the gate before anything else — roughly eight weeks that screen for the physical and psychological demands of submarine life before you ever see a fire control console.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E1-E3 FT?
Time-blocked day at the E1-E3 FT rank tier: 0530 Wake, shower, muster for morning quarters on the pier or on deck (schedule and location vary by whether the boat is in port, at the pier, or in upkeep — if underway, the watch rotation has already replaced the quarters formation), 0600–0630 Morning quarters: attendance, uniform inspection, plan of the day read by the COB or section chief. The weapons department LCPO uses this time to announce maintenance evolutions, qualification sign-off opportunities, and any safety reminders from the previous day,…
Q04What mistakes get E1-E3 FT soldiers fired or relieved?
Blank-checking the submarine qualification card — getting signatures without walking the spaces and understanding what you signed for. The XO who discovers a Sailor's damage-control knowledge gaps during a real casualty does not ask whether the qual card says 'complete.'; Talking about the boat's operations, schedule, patrol area, or weapons loadout off the boat — to family, in a bar, on social media.…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E1-E3 FT rank tier?
Continue the submarine FT path or request a lateral transfer out of submarines — BESS is designed to surface reservations early, but some Sailors who make it through BESS and FT A School discover that submarine life — confined spaces, long deployments, hot-racking, the intensity of the qualification culture — is not what they want long-term. The option to request a transfer out of submarines exists, but the timing and mechanism involve the detailing process and the command's endorsement. If you have genuine reservations about the submarine path,…
Q06What's next after E1-E3 for a FT (Fire Control Technician) in the Navy?
At FT3 (E-4), the qualification badge on your chest changes the conversation.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E1-E3 FT need to know cold?
Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) curriculum and the submarine qualification (PQS) card issued at your first command: the Dolphins qualification package is the single most important document in your career at this tier.; NAVSEA OD 45845 — Submarine Weapons and Ordnance System Safety Manual (verify current publication number through your weapons officer): the safety governance you operate inside during all torpedo and weapons handling evolutions.;…

This playbook has no tips yet. Be the first to share what you know.

Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards