AgustaWestland wins £76m Lynx Wildcat training facility contract

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to design and develop an integrated training solution which includes the building and equipping of a new modern training centre for the AW159 Lynx Wildcat helicopter.

The state-of-the-art training centre will be located at RNAS Yeovilton in South West England, alongside Royal Navy and British Army AW159 Lynx Wildcat squadrons. The facility will provide training courses for Army aircrew and maintainers starting in January 2013, with training for Royal Navy aircrew and maintainers starting January 2014.

John Ponsonby, Senior Vice President Training, AgustaWestland said "This contract represents a step change in the way AgustaWestland is partnering with the MoD to deliver world-class training for front line crews, whilst ensuring we provide value for money within every part of the service." He added "This contract underlines AgustaWestland's commitment to provide the highest quality of training to Lynx Wildcat aircrew and maintainers, thereby ensuring the front line units are fully prepared for whatever missions they may be asked to undertake."

The Wildcat Training Centre will be equipped to provide air crew and maintainer training using a wide range of synthetic training technology including two Full Mission Simulators (FMS), Flight Training Device (FTD) and Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT). All devices will be capable of delivering Army or Royal Navy conversion and mission training. Each of the Full Mission Simulators has six degrees of freedom to provide the acceleration sensations associated with helicopter flying together with a visual system that complies with JAR-FSTD-H Level D, to give highly realistic and cost effective training. The maintenance training facility will be equipped with a suite of synthetic training devices covering the aircrafts mechanical, avionic and weapon systems.

The training centre will also contain a suite of briefing rooms, integrated electronic classrooms and a learning management system will be operational and providing training for the Army from early 2013 and for Royal Navy from early 2014.

AgustaWestland has partnered with a number of key suppliers to achieve a high level of technology insertion into the project. These suppliers include Indra, who will supply Full Motion Simulators and other aircrew training equipment and Pennant Training Systems, who will supply a suite of maintenance training aids. Development of training devices, equipment and media will start immediately, with the contract for construction of the facility to be awarded later this year.

This major contract for the AW159 Lynx Wildcat training facility continues AgustaWestland's growth in the helicopter training services market. AgustaWestland has training academies located in Italy, USA and UK and in March 2010 opened its Operational Flying Training Centre at Newquay Cornwall Airport.

Source: AgustaWestland

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