Latest milestone achieved in Nimrod MRA4 synthetic training requirement
Thales UK and BAE Systems have today marked a significant milestone in the provision of simulators and other training equipment for the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) Nimrod MRA4 maritime reconnaissance and attack aircraft, with the completion of the upgrade of the aircrew synthetic training aids (ASTA) devices to a standard ready for training.
This is the culmination of a two-year programme, which included extensive integration and mission testing with both BAE Systems and the end users. The Thales ASTA devices have been progressively installed and commissioned at RAF Kinloss in Scotland since 2004. The devices are to be utilised by the RAF to prepare the mission syllabus for the start of training around the activities of the upgrade. Today’s milestone supports the Nimrod MRA4 programme in-service date of 2010.
Thales is working with BAE Systems to implement the next upgrade to the ASTA, which is expected to be contracted later this year and enter service in mid 2010. Prior to that, Thales plans to deliver a flight test update to the ASTA suite at the end of 2009.
Steve Grinham, VP of Thales’s training and simulation business, says: “Thales UK and BAE Systems have worked closely with the RAF to develop a product that meets the end-users’ demanding requirements.
“ASTA will provide the RAF with a sophisticated synthetic training suite that will allow them to achieve their ambition of maximising the transfer of training from the aircraft to the ground based training system. This will increase the availability of the aircraft for operational missions while optimising flight and mission crew performance.
“Thales UK is proud of the work accomplished to reach this milestone and looks forward to the next phases of the aircraft programme.”
The MRA4 ASTA, built at Thales UK’s Crawley facility, is a fully integrated suite com¬prising two dynamic simulators, two flight training devices, two rear crew trainers, a part task trainer and a suite of mission-support and scenario-generation tools. Thales UK has been responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of this suite of products for the RAF under a contract from the prime contractor of Nimrod MRA4, BAE Systems.