The US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is scoping out the possibility of buying a full-motion simulator for its fleet of Polish-built PZL Mielec M-28 Skytruck light transports.
A request for information issued by the USAF is designed to help the service in "assessing the viability of procuring an M-28A Weapons System Trainer," the document reads. The air force asks potential contractor to respond by 30 April.
The USAF uses its M-28s for AFSOC's foreign internal defence mission training - in other words helping develop partner countries' air forces to help counter guerrilla activity. The service has an active fleet of 10 M-28s, as recorded by Flightglobal's MiliCAS database.
The USAF special operations forces are trying to find out how much a simulator might cost and long how it might take to deliver. The service would consider ordering the device only after it receives that information.
The air force wants the simulator to use electric motion actuators and it should plug into its new distributed mission operations virtual training system. The simulator's threat library will not be government furnished, but should be able to use existing AFSOC databases.
The command also wants the simulator to meet current US Federal Aviation Administration Level-D fidelity and have night-vision capable displays.
Source: Flight International
