Italian Air Force receives Predator Mission Trainer

CAE has delivered a Predator Mission Trainer system to the Italian Air Force, the company announced on 25 February.

The simulator has entered into service at Italian Air Force’s Amendola Air Force Base.

Jointly developed by CAE and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Predator Mission Trainer represents the Italian Air Force’s Predator A UAS during phase one of this delivery. Over the next several months during phase two of delivery, the Predator B/MQ-9 variant of the Predator Mission Trainer will undergo acceptance testing with the Italian Air Force.

The system will allow for zero flight time training if desired. For the physical hardware, CAE used an original Block 1 ground control station provided by the Italian Air Force to ensure the highest level of fidelity and

realism. 

The trainer features CAE’s sensor simulation, fully interactive tactical environment for enhanced mission training, and use of the Open Geospatial Consortium Common Database architecture for interoperable and networked training capabilities.

Gene Colabatistto, group president, defense and security, CAE, said: ‘The development of the Predator Mission Trainer for the Italian Air Force represents a new level of fidelity and capability in the use of synthetic training for remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators.

‘We have leveraged our decades of experience developing the highest fidelity flight simulators for commercial and military aircraft, and applied the same discipline to the Predator Mission Trainer so that aircrews will be able to conduct all training in the simulator without necessarily requiring further training on the actual aircraft.  Once the Predator B variant is accepted, this Predator Mission Trainer will be the first Level D equivalent simulator for an unmanned aircraft.’

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Predator Mission Trainer (PMT)