Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
CAE's acquisition of the former Reflectone from BAE Systems for $80 million will strengthen the Canadian company's grip on the commercial flight simulation market (Flight International, 20-26 February).
Although a relatively small player in the civil market, the Tampa, Florida-based Flight Simulation and Training unit has focused its efforts on providing simulators to European manufacturer Airbus, in which BAE is a 20% shareholder.
The US company has delivered four A320 simulators to Airbus and is developing the European manufacturer's firstA340-500/600 simulator, for delivery in 2002. Airbus, meanwhile, holds options on two more A330/A340 machines.
As well as leading the commercial flight simulation market by a wide margin, CAE is a major supplier of simulators for Airbus types. So far this year the company has announced the sale of two A330/A340 machines, to Air France and Dragonair, plus an ATR 42/72 simulator to Schreiner Aviation Training of the Netherlands.
CAE claims to have won almost 90% of the commercial simulator market last year, although rival Thales (formerly Thomson Training & Simulation) rallied towards the end of 2000 with orders for three Boeing 737-700/800 machines, two for FlightSafety Boeing Training International and one for Lockheed Martin Commercial Flight Training Center.
Given CAE's dominance of the civil market, the greatest benefit of the new acquisition will be to provide the Canadian company with a springboard from which to re-enter the US military market.
CAE withdrew from the USA in the early 1990s when it sold the Link simulation business it had acquired in the 1980s. The former Reflectone is a relatively small player in the US market, and specialises in helicopter and transport aircraft simulators.
Through its partnership with Lockheed Martin, the Tampa unit has built C-130J training systems for the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force. Further C-130J devices are being built for the Italian air force and USAir Force and Marine Corps.
Through Lockheed Martin, the unit received a $13 million contract in January for two additional C-130J trainers for the USAF, and a $29 million contract from Taiwan to build a C-130H simulator and training device for the Republic of China Air Force. CAE has also produced C-130 trainers.
The Tampa unit, meanwhile, operates a simulator-equipped C-130 training centre, while CAE owns and operates a military helicopter aircrew training centre in the UK and is looking for other similar opportunities.
The company has already adopted a strategy in the civil market of expanding into the pilot training business, building simulator centres in So Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Canada; and Madrid, Spain. The first of these, the São Paulo centre, will open in April equipped with A320, Boeing MD-11 and Fokker 100 simulators and with TAM and Varig as anchor customers.
Expanding into pilot training will help CAE grow its military business in the face of reduced defence spending. Recent contracts for the company's military arm have involved upgrades, rather than new simulators. They include updating the UK Royal Navy's Westland Lynx HAS8 simulator and upgrading NATO's Boeing E-3A Sentry machine with new MaxVue Medallion visual system.
CAE is to supply 16 trainers to Thales Air Defence for the UK military's Starstreak self-propelled surface-to-air missile system. The company will also provide Thales with a magnetic anomaly detector simulator as part of the trainer suite for the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 upgrade.Source: Flight International
