European nations use Hughes' unit-level training devices
The military-aircraft simulation industry worldwide continues to rely on international business as domestic programmes face yet more delays.
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
International business continues to be vital to the military-aircraft simulation industry, as domestic programmes face further delays. In Europe, progress on training systems for new combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter EF2000 and Eurocopter Tiger has been hampered by the uncertainties still surrounding the timing and scale of production.
In the USA, work continues on a new generation of combat aircraft, represented by the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22, McDonnell Douglas F-18E/F and the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 helicopter, but none of these aircraft will enter service before the turn of the century and their importance to the simulation industry still lies some years ahead. Into the breach has stepped the international market, fuelled largely, but not exclusively, by a new round of combat-aircraft sales as countries strive to re-equip their forces for the new century.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has proved a major player in the past few months, placing contracts for Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk, Boeing 707 and Lockheed Martin C-130J simulators - all with CAE Electronics. More simulation work will accompany the RAAF's selection of the British Aerospace Hawk as its lead-in fighter trainer, and its pending choice of airborne early-warning aircraft.
Europe has not been idle. Germany awarded CAE a major contract earlier in 1996 to build simulators for the army's rotary-wing training school. The initial contract is for four simulators, with additional machines on option to simulate a new training helicopter, which has yet to be selected. The UK's decision to hand helicopter training over to a private contractor has resulted in training-device orders for Frasca, and the Royal Air Force's medium support-helicopter programme to build a simulator-equipped training centre will be one of the big contract awards of 1997.
These programmes aside, it continues to be the export sales of fighter aircraft, which provide the simulation industry with its best prospects for near-term business. A surprising number of fighter competitions are either under, or on, the horizon. In Europe, Austria has begun the search for a new fighter, as has Norway, while the central European nations of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland plan to acquire Western-built fighters to facilitate their entry into the NATO Alliance.
Farther afield, Chile has begun the process of selecting a new fighter, as has Brazil. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has short-listed the Dasssault Rafale and Lockheed Martin F-16 for its long-awaited 80-aircraft fighter requirement. Several Far East countries - Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand among them - plan further fighter purchases, while the Philippines has re-emerged as a potential customer, and South Korea has announced plans for a major new fighter contest - likely to be the first in which the F-22 will be a player, competing against both the Russian Sukhoi Su-37 and the US McDonnell Douglas F-15.
Export potential
The raft of combat-aircraft requirements, now surfacing, is good news for manufacturers, as export sales look likely to extend the production lives of current fighter programmes to help bridge the gap to the next generation which has been created by the stretching of development phases to fit dramatically reduced funding profiles. The next few years promise substantial additional sales for which today's F-16, F-18, Dassault Mirage 2000 and Saab Gripen, primarily, are the contenders.
Fighter sales are important to the simulation industry because the ratio of simulators required to aircraft purchased is the highest in the military marketplace, and the training devices are among the most advanced and expensive this industry produces - although the latter fact is being challenged increasingly by new technology.
If there is a "typical" fighter simulator it is a fixed-base dome device with a visual system which provides both a static wide-angle, low-resolution, background scene and a head-tracked narrow-angle, high-resolution, area-of-interest image. Requirements for target projectors, sensor, electronic-warfare and night-vision-goggle simulation, all add the sophistication, and cost, of such a device.
While the full-mission dome simulator remains a basic requirement for most countries buying a new fighter, there is increasing demand for lower-cost companion devices which can be located with the units operating the aircraft, and used to keep pilots familiar with cockpit procedures and weapon-systems operation. This much cheaper unit-level training device (UTD) has increasingly become a factor in the sale of simulators to accompany both fighter purchases and upgrades.
Fighter-upgrade momentum
The much-analysed fighter-upgrade market finally appears to be gaining some momentum as defence-budget cuts bite into re-equipment plans. In Europe, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway are updating their F-16s, while both Greece and Turkey plan to upgrade their McDonnell Douglas F-4s. Turkey has also restarted a programme to update its Northrop F-5s. Fighter-upgrade programmes are also under way, or planned, as far afield as Argentina and Korea.
The unit-level training device has particular potential in the upgrade market, as the aircraft changes almost always centre on the weapon systems, rather than the handling qualities - meaning that a relatively inexpensive device which accurately mimics the upgraded cockpit is adequate for the training task. The European F-16 nations have ordered UTDs from Hughes Training and Thomson Training & Simulation. Camber is producing a similar type of device for units operating Argentina's upgraded McDonnell Douglas A-4Ms.
In the USA, the programme to upgrade Northrop T-38 trainers, won by McDonnell Douglas and Israel Aircraft Industries earlier in 1996, includes the supply of both operational flight trainers and lower-cost UTDs. The same device technology is likely to feature in the ground-based training system planned for the US Air Force/Navy Raytheon Beech MkII Joint Primary Training System.
Combat-helicopter simulators can be as complex as those for fighters, often with the added complexity of motion and more-demanding requirements for visual simulation - both in scene density and field of view. Helicopter simulators continue to challenge the state of the art in visual simulation, in particular, and both motion-based domes and helmet-mounted displays are increasingly used.
Other military helicopter and transport-aircraft markets draw heavily on commercial flight-simulator technology, combining motion with wide-angle visual displays. A new generation of aircraft, exemplified by the Black Hawk helicopter and Lockheed Martin C-130J transport, are drawing increasing numbers of international customers and, with them, requirements for simulators.
Simulator manufacturers see great promise in these transport-type markets, because of their potential size, but also because they allow them to re-use technology from the civil sector. The military, meanwhile, is seeking ways to use cost-effective commercial technology and is embracing civil-airline standards for both the simulators and the training performed on them. It is now not unusual for a military customer to specify civil Level D training-approval standards for transport-aircraft simulators.
Lockheed Martin's private-venture development of the C-130J has given the simulation industry a welcome new opportunity. As launch customer for the improved Hercules, the UK selected Reflectone to provide its training system. Now, CAE has entered the C-130J simulation market, which includes potential aircraft sales to Italy, Saudi Arabia, Norway and others. Lockheed Martin says that training crews to use the C-130J's vastly improved cockpit systems is a major issue for potential customers, and that simulators will play a key role in developing the market for this aircraft.
Another "new" market, which has emerged as defence budgets, have reduced is that for small naval helicopters, such as the GKN Westland Lynx and Kaman SH-2G. Competitions now under way in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia promise to create a demand for associated training systems.
While the domestic markets of the world's major military-aircraft simulator manufacturers continue to be adversely affected by programme slow-downs, there is evidence that the international marketplace promises to be lively - and certain to remain highly competitive.
Source: Flight International
