It is still “the jewel in the crown” of CAE’s simulation business, according to Ian Bell, the company’s vice-president and general manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the 18 years since the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) tapped the Canadian company to provide the Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility (MSHATF) at RAF Benson, the complex has been significantly enhanced. For example, CAE (Chalet B38) networked the six dynamic simulators so that Britain’s Chinook, Merlin and Puma pilots can realistically practice combined operations. And the facility has evolved to provide realistic pre-deployment training. It will soon be offering rehearsal training at short notice for specific missions-to-come.
Still, the primary task of the MSHATF remains initial conversion of pilots onto type, through classroom instruction as well as simulator training. Overall, the facility is helping the MoD achieve its cost-saving ambition of increasing the proportion of synthetic versus actual flying training. The ratio has always been 70:30 for the Merlin, and will soon be the same for the Puma now that an upgraded Mk 2 version is coming into service.
Cost Saver
According to Andrew Naismith, managing director of CAE Aircrew Training Services at Benson, the cost of synthetic flying is just 5-10 percent what actual flying costs. It is also more environmentally friendly, and “better than real-world training in many cases,” he said.
Naismith does not accept the contention of Chinook crews that their current synthetic-live ratio of 45:55 is lower than the other two types because their flying is more complicated. The recent move of the RAF’s Chinook Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) to Benson “will hopefully change that within a year, with MoD agreement,” he added.
For sure, Chinook pilots on actual deployment are more likely to find themselves landing in dusty, ‘brown-out’ conditions, and often at night. Thanks to training in the MSHATF, the RAF has only suffered three incidents of minor damage in such landings, Naismith claimed. More graphically, he illustrated the value of emergency training that can only be done in a simulator. A Danish EH101 crew saved their aircraft when all three engines failed on climbout from a confined area. “They relied on the ‘muscle memory’ that they learned here,” he said.
Until recently, the two Merlin (RAF EH101) simulators at Benson were the only ones available for EH101 pilot training. Therefore, aircrews from the other six military customers for this helicopter have all trained here. This has helped the development of standard emergency procedures for the type, Naismith noted.
Four other countries have sent Chinook pilots here for training, and two others for Puma training. They collectively log about 2,000 hours, compared with 9,000 hours ‘flown’ annually by the MoD’s pilots. CAE (Chalet B38) and the MoD share the revenue. More ‘third-party flying’ could be done, but unlike many civilian simulator facilities the MSHATF does not operate on a 24-hour basis.
Joint Exercises
A Tactical Control Centre (TCC) within the building at Benson manages the ‘Thursday Wars’ when trainee pilots in the simulators learn how to fly with other friendly assets against airborne and ground-to-air threats.
During a recent media demonstration, instructors in the TCC generated AH-64 attack helicopters, an AWACS and a Tornado combat jet for the Blue Force. A cyber-MiG-29 supplemented with a surface-to-air missile represented the Red Force.
Naismith said that networking simulators for helicopters is more difficult than for fixed-wing aircraft, but a common database (CDB) is solving that issue. This is related to the introduction of CAE’s Medallion 6000 visual systems, which are replacing less detailed Harmony visuals provided by Rockwell Collins. CAE has made the investment in the CDB, but it’s not proprietary, Naismith said.
CAE first employed the CDB 10 years ago when it won a mission rehearsal contract from U.S. Special Operations Command. Now the CDB allows the MSHATF to offer similar rehearsals. Already, “no British medium helicopter aircrew goes anywhere without pre-deployment training here,” said Naismith.
Simulation training for the rear crews of helicopters is still an ambition for CAE. Naismith said that CAE’s home country, Canada, has taken the lead here. The process is complicated by the number of tasks to be simulated. “We’ll probably start with gunnery training,” he said. “We’ll have to go through the same cultural acclimatization process as we did with the pilots,” he added.
This potential capability will form part of a review–due next year–of CAE’s contract to provide and run the MSHATF. This will be halfway through the anticipated 40-year lifespan of this “private finance initiative” (PFI)-based program. The MoD guarantees a minimum usage and pays by the hour. British company Serco provides the ex-military instructors under subcontract to CAE.
Ahead of the review, CAE has won a contract to upgrade two of the three Chinook simulators at Benson to the Mk 6A standard, including its digital automatic flying control system.
CAE in the Region
CAE has 25 training sites in Europe, 17 of them in the UK, including a large training center in its regional headquarters at Burgess Hill. Some 500 of the company’s 8,000 worldwide employees are in the UK.
According to regional vice-president Ian Bell, the UK is a strategic market because many nations adopt British defense philosophies and practices. CAE has won contracts to provide various systems as part of the UK’s new Military Flying Training System (MFTS), despite this being managed by a company half-owned by rival training systems provider Lockheed Martin.
Contracts in Europe during the past year have included a Predator UAS simulator for the Italian air force, and an upgrade of the German navy’s Sea King helicopter training device to a full-mission simulator. CAE also provides the Medallion 6000 visual system for the German Air Force Eurofighter training devices.
The company has been nominated by Airbus D&S, and Leonardo-Finmeccanica as preferred supplier of simulators for the C295 airlifter and the M346 jet trainer respectively. CAE has a joint venture with the Italian company to offer comprehensive training for its former-AgustaWestland helicopter range.
The gap between the company’s larger civilian business and the defense business is narrowing, Bell said. He said that CAE is seeking to become “a long-term partner for mission readiness.” It established an office in Abu Dhabi in 2012, and subsequently won a contract to support the UAE’s special forces.