Mon, Jun 15, 2009
New Generation Trainers To Oceana and Lemoore
Boeing and teammate L-3 have delivered four Block II F/A-18E/F
Super Hornet Tactical Operation Flight Trainers (TOFT) to the U.S.
Navy and declared them “Ready for Training.” Naval Air
Station (NAS) Oceana, Va., has two of the trainers, and two are
located at NAS Lemoore, Calif.
“These are the first Block II TOFTs, the new generation of
trainers,” said Steven Dent, F/A-18 Training Systems manager
for Boeing. “The Boeing/L-3 team is able to offer a high
level of aircraft concurrency with these new devices.”
The newly installed Block II TOFTs reflect the upgrades made to
Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, including advanced
sensors, avionics and the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned
Array radar, which Boeing has been delivering to the Navy since
2005. The team completed installation and on-site testing of the
TOFTs earlier this month. The current contract calls for six more
trainers, in total, to be delivered to NAS Oceana and Lemoore.
Boeing expects to deliver the next two trainers in March 2010. A
potential follow-on contract calls for up to four additional
trainers.
“The Navy final evaluation went very well,” said
Rick Mason, training system project manager for the Naval Air
Warfare Center’s Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla.
“The Boeing/L-3 on-site team was very productive and got us
that much closer to the finish line.”
The TOFTs, which L-3 assembles, integrates and tests at its
facility in Arlington, Texas, are composed of an
instructor/operator station, which establishes the scenarios and
training missions, and both forward and aft crew stations, each
with its own visual system. One brief/debrief station serves every
two TOFTs. The Boeing/L-3 team is using three Block II TOFTs in
Arlington to test software and architectural upgrades for future
trainer development.
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