On March 14 at the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference (DIMDEX), CAE was awarded a subcontract from Leonardo Helicopters to provide the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) with a comprehensive NH90 helicopter training solution. The contract is valued at more than US$114 million.
The QEAF has signed a contract with Leonardo Helicopters to acquire a fleet of both NH90 tactical transport helicopters (TTH) and NH90 NATO frigate helicopters (NFH). CAE was selected by the QEAF to provide the comprehensive NH90 training solution, including a training center facility; suite of simulators and training devices; and training support services.
“We are honored to serve as the training systems integrator to lead the overall design and development of a comprehensive training solution for Qatar Emiri Air Force NH90 helicopters,” said Ian Bell, CAE’s vice president and general manager, Middle East/Asia-Pacific. “We will leverage our unmatched helicopter training and simulation experience to deliver a world-class training solution that cost-effectively prepares Qatar’s NH90 pilots, aircrews, and maintenance technicians for mission success.”
CAE will lead the design and building of a new training center facility in Qatar. Housed in the training center will be a suite of training devices, including:
- CAE 3000 Series NH90 TTH full-mission simulator;
- CAE 3000 Series NH90 NFH full-mission simulator;
- NH90 NFH rear-crew trainer for training tactical coordinators (TACCO) and sensor operators, and capable of networking with the full-mission simulators to provide full-crew mission training;
- CAE Simfinity NH90 integrated procedures trainers for the TTH and NFH configurations;
- NH90 winch and door gunner trainer; and
- NH90 virtual maintenance training system (VMT) classroom.
Following delivery of the training center facility and NH90 training devices in 2021, CAE will commence providing training support services, including classroom and simulator instructors.
CAE will also design and develop a Tactical Control Center to be used for managing networked mission training exercises.
The CAE 3000 Series NH90 full-mission simulators — which will be certified to Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators — will feature a range of CAE’s core simulation technologies. These technologies include: six degree-of-freedom (DOF) electric motion system and high-performance vibration platform to replicate vibration cues critical to helicopter pilots; a high-fidelity CAE Medallion-6000XR visual system; and a direct projection 220-degree by 88-degree extreme field-of-view dome display.
The NH90 simulators will also feature the Open Geospatial Consortium Common Database (OGC CDB) architecture, an international standard for the creation of synthetic environment databases. This common database software and standardization will enhance synthetic environment database re-use and interoperability across the Qatar Armed Forces.
