Black Hawk pilots from Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma will be at Whidbey during the next year for training in a Navy simulator.

“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 Whidbey Island Naval Air Station with the Black Hawks is a possibility, Paulsboe said the Army has other options, including over water, nighttime training over south Puget Sound.

It is unclear “when or if it’s something we need to do at Whidbey Island,” he said.

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

The move correlates with the Army’s shift in resources to the Pacific Rim, according to The Olympian newspaper.

The change also diverges from the Army’s traditional role of conducting missions over land while Marine helicopter crews take on challenges at sea.

Cathryn Andrews, media contact for the anti-noise group Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, said her organization doesn’t believe the Navy will keep the training to simulators.

She said COER members believe the Navy has a history of breaking promises.

“Do you really expect COER to believe them?” Andrews asked.

After COER sued the Navy over jet noise last year, the Navy agreed to keep the number of operations at Outlying Field Coupeville to the 2005 cap of 6,120.