Paris Air Show: CAE wins US Army training contract

CAE has been awarded a US Army contract for initial and annual recurrent training for more than 600 US Air Force and army fixed-wing pilots, the company announced on 4 June.

The contract has a base value of over $29 million and six one-year options through 30 September 2023. The total contract value could reach $200 million.

Under the contract, CAE US will deliver training services at a new training centre to be built at Dothan Regional Airport in Alabama, near the army's Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker.

The army fixed-wing training programme is responsible for providing training for experienced army rotary wing aviators transitioning to fly the army's fixed-wing fleet.

CAE and the army will implement an initial-entry fixed-wing training programme for entry-level students. The fixed-wing training programme also provides recurrent training for the C-12/RC-12 King Air and annual training for the air force's C-12 King Air pilots.

CAE will leverage existing designs to manufacture a suite of training devices, including two CAE 7000XR Series C-12 King Air full-flight simulators (FFSs) and two reconfigurable CAE Simfinity C-12 King Air integrated procedures trainers (IPTs). 

Two other CAE 7000XR Series FFSs will also be developed which will use CAE's roll-on/roll-off (RORO) cockpit design, to enable cockpits representing various aircraft types to be used in the full-flight simulator. 

The company will also provide live-flying training under the programme, using six Grob G120TP aircraft that it will acquire.

In addition, it will design and produce two flight training devices for the Grob G120TP, along with desktop trainers and courseware for the training programme. CAE instructors will also operate a fleet of ten C-12U King Airs owned by operated by the army for live-flying training.

Gene Colabatistto, group president for defence and security at CAE, said: 'We are honoured and proud that the US Army has selected CAE as its training systems integration partner of choice for fixed-wing training.

'We will be bringing together live, virtual and constructive training by providing the US Army with a modern and flexible training programme that will help ensure safe, high-quality training for army fixed-wing aviators. This is another great example of CAE leveraging its training systems integration expertise to provide a comprehensive, turnkey training solution.'