Several Countries Collaborating To Help Train Helicopter
Aircrews
AgustaWestland has signed a contract with the European Defence
Agency for the provision of an Interim Helicopter Tactics Training
Service. In this Category B EDA program the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom (the
contributing Member States) have formally agreed to collaborate in
the procurement of this training service. The training will help
prepare contributing Member States' helicopter crews for joint
deployment on allied military operations at the same time as they
develop their own indigenous tactics training capabilities.
AgustaWestland had been awarded a first contract by EDA in 2008 to
conduct a feasibility study into Helicopter Tactics program (HTP)
for nations deploying on multinational operations and a second
contract in 2009 for a HTP Implementation Study.
The first course of the latest contract will be delivered this
year, with a total of 20 courses delivered over the following two
years, at a dedicated facility in the Empire Test Pilots' School at
MoD Boscombe Down, United Kingdom. This training applies the latest
developments in gaming technology to deliver a high fidelity
virtual environment for helicopter crew mission training. The
founding principle is to deliver whole crew training based on
recent operational experience, which has underlined the key part
played by every crew-member in delivering operational effect. The
training equipment provides student stations for the pilot,
navigator, engineer and the rear crew, and also includes the
provision of a cabin door gun. The synthetic environment is based
on VBS2, which provides a high fidelity representation of the
operational environment while allowing for distributed simulation.
Therefore, the simulators can be reconfigured to provide a highly
representative training environment for crews operating the AW109,
Mi-171 and other helicopter types. The training system will provide
individual, joint, collective and coalition training for
contributing member states' helicopter crews in a common synthetic
environment. Courses will run for three weeks and include theory
lectures and the practical application of the tactics, techniques
and procedures, distilled from current and past operations. The
course is designed to provide a common understanding of the mission
tactics required to be successful in current operations. It can
also be adapted to meet individual and specific national
requirements.
John Ponsonby, Senior Vice President Training, AgustaWestland
said, "We are both delighted and honoured to be part of this
multinational program, supporting coalition helicopter crews in
their pre-deployment training for operations. As part of this
unique provision, AgustaWestland has combined the latest training
technology with experienced instructors, in order to deliver a
training service that is highly credible, yet flexible enough to
meet the needs of all national training requirements."
"This is a prime example of pooling and sharing in action," said
Andy Gray, Helicopter Project Officer at the EDA. "The
collaboration between these six nations has significantly reduced
cost and de-risked future national programs, whilst still
delivering high value and tangible benefits. It is an exemplar for
future multinational initiatives."