First Awarded Under OTSP Program

CAE announced Friday the Government of Canada has awarded the company a contract valued at approximately C$ 329.5 million for a comprehensive C-130J aircrew training equipment and services solution. CAE leads a pan-Canadian team that includes xwave, St. Johns, Newfoundland; Bombardier, Saint-Laurent, Quebec; Atlantis Systems International, Brampton, Ontario; and Cascade Aerospace, Abbotsford, British-Columbia.

Under the program called the Operational Training Systems Provider (OTSP), CAE won a competitive procurement to serve as the prime contractor to provide the training systems and services for Canada's tactical airlift, medium-to-heavy helicopter, and potentially other aircraft fleets.

The contract announced Friday, in support of Canada's new fleet of 17 C-130J Hercules tactical airlift aircraft, is the first contract under the OTSP. The C-130J program will create and sustain approximately 330 jobs for the first three years and 50 jobs for the next 20 years throughout Canada.

"We are proud to lead the overall design and development of a Canadian training solution for the C-130J. This will play a key role in preparing our Canadian Forces to be mission ready," said Robert E. Brown, CAE's President and CEO. "By leveraging the capabilities of CAE and other leading Canadian companies, we are benefiting many provinces across Canada while also positioning CAE for future international training systems integrator opportunities."

"CAE is a Canadian success story, its leadership in simulation and training is widely recognized around the world. This contract is another prime example of the world-class capability that can be found throughout Canada's aerospace and defence sector," said Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. "Our acquisition of tactical airlift aircraft is providing direct industrial regional benefits and generating employment throughout the country. This project is the first step to establishing a world-class training organization which will significantly contribute to the safety and operational effectiveness of our troops as well as continue to develop our expertise in Canada."

The contract related to C-130J training systems and services is divided into two phases. First, during the acquisition phase over the next three years, CAE will lead the design and development of a C-130J training suite. It will include two full-mission simulators (FMS), one flight training device (FTD), three CAE Simfinity integrated procedures trainers (IPT), one fuselage trainer (FuT), laptop-based CAE Simfinity virtual simulators (VSIM), courseware, tactical control centre, training information management system and related information technology equipment. Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) will lead the design and construction of a new Tactical Airlift Training Centre in Trenton, Ontario.

Following delivery of the C-130J training suite in the first half of 2012, phase two of the contract will commence with CAE leading the in-service support for the C-130J aircrew training program. During the 20-year in-service support phase, CAE will be responsible for providing a range of training support services, including simulator upgrades, training device maintenance as well as hardware and software engineering support. In addition, CAE staff onsite in Trenton will provide services such as courseware updates, scheduling, obsolescence management, and database modelling and generation for common databases (CDB).

CAE will subcontract work to each company of its team, including the development of the training information management system and related information technology equipment to xwave, the courseware development to Bombardier; the design and manufacture of the C-130J FTD to Atlantis and the design and manufacture of the C130J FuT to Cascade.

FMI: www.cae.com