CAE has been awarded an AUD$12 million (C$11 million) contract by Australia’s Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) to provide a Tactical Training Capability Upgrade (TTCU) to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-130J and C-130H training systems.

The upgrades will make several tactical training enhancements to the existing C-130J and C-130H full flight simulators, including the addition of an off-board instructor operator station linking both devices. In addition, the visual system on both simulators will be upgraded to CAE’s Medallion-S™, and a common synthetic tactical environment will significantly enhance mission and tactical training capabilities. The C-130H simulator will also be equipped with a navigator station in the cockpit to allow full flight crew training.

"This is a significant milestone achievement in the expansion of the two Air Lift Group C-130 simulators from conversion training devices to very capable crew mission training assets,” said Air Commodore Glen Steed, the Commander of the RAAF Air Lift Group. “The hard work by both CAE and the RAAF Air Lift Group really starts now to bring this to fruition. The Air Lift Group looks forward to working with CAE Australia to achieve this very important project on time and on budget."

“CAE Australia is proud of the confidence that RAAF Air Lift Group has shown in our ability to provide training solutions through our local engineering and support capability, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them well into the future,” said Alan Johnson, Managing Director of CAE Australia. “The upgrades ensure that the Air Lift Group maximises the training utility from its previous investments in high fidelity simulation and provides a real capability advantage for the RAAF, particularly with the high operational tempo of recent times.”

This upgrade project was contracted utilising the existing Management and Support of ADF Aerospace Simulators (MSAAS) contract, which CAE was awarded in 2003. The MSAAS contract has enabled CAE to establish a world class support capability in Australia, and CAE was recently certified by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as an Authorised Engineering Organisation (AEO).

“Our experiences in working with CAE through the MSAAS contract gives us a great deal of confidence that the upgrades will be delivered in a professional and timely manner” said Mark Fairleigh, DMO Project Director. “I look forward to handing back, on time, the upgraded simulators to Air Lift Group and seeing the enhancements to their training.”

CAE currently provides support for the ADF’s C-130J, C-130H, B707, S-70A Black Hawk, and S-70B Seahawk simulators, and is competing for the provision of the A330 MRTT full-flight simulator for the RAAF through prime contractor EADS CASA.

FMI: www.cae.com