Simulators, Support For Royal Netherlands Air Force, Tech
Enhancements For German Army
CAE has won a series of military contracts with the
Netherlands, Germany, and other global defence forces, the company
announced Thursday. The contracts, valued at more than $95 million,
include a major contract with the Royal Netherlands Air Force
(RNLAF) to expand CH-47 Chinook helicopter training at CAE’s
Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility (MSHATF) in the
United Kingdom.
“Our MSHATF continues to be the most advanced helicopter
training facility of its type in the world, and a perfect example
of CAE’s capabilities as a training systems
integrator,” said Martin Gagne, CAE’s Group President,
Military Products, Training and Services. “The RNLAF
are a major third party user of the MSHATF and their decision to
increase their training with CAE is a welcome endorsement of our
strategy to offer contemporary turnkey training services tailored
to customer requirements.”
Under terms of the contract with the RNLAF, subject to usual
approvals, CAE will first upgrade one of the CH-47 full-mission
simulators located at the MSHATF to ensure concurrency with the
RNLAF’s current Avionics Control and Management System (ACMS)
Block 5 CH-47D and new Block 6 CH-47F Chinook helicopters.
Following the simulator upgrade, RNLAF Chinook aircrews will
continue training at the MSHATF through 2018, gradually increasing
training to at least 1,000 hours per year.
“With all these features, the simulator will enable the
RNLAF pilots to train in the most advanced digital cockpit
currently available for the Chinook helicopter,” according to
LTC Cor van der Gaag, RNLAF’s project leader for both the
new-build CH-47F Chinook and simulator upgrade program.
The RNLAF began training their CH-47 Chinook aircrews at the
MSHATF in 2003. Up until now, the RNLAF training curriculum
included emergency, instrument, night-vision goggle (NVG), and
tactical flight procedures during type conversion and recurrent
training. The simulator upgrade will expand training to include a
Terma-developed Chinook Aircraft Survivability Equipment (CHASE)
electronic warfare suite and an L-3 Wescam forward-looking infrared
(FLIR). In addition, a digital Automatic Flight Control
System (AFCS) will support training pilots to land in brown-out
conditions.
CH-47F File Photo
Germany’s procurement office for information technology
and management (Bundesamt für Informationstechnik und
Informationsmanagement der Bundeswehr) has contracted CAE to
provide major product enhancements to the CAE GESI command and
staff training system for the German Army. As part of the CAE
GESI product improvement development program, CAE is enhancing the
GESI constructive simulation system to address new and emerging
training requirements, including operations other than war (OOTW),
peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, military operations in
urban terrain (MOUT), joint and multi-national operations,
emergency management and disaster planning. In addition, the
CAE GESI system will be expanded to run complex and comprehensive
exercises from the company level up to division level.