The skies over Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, will be the training zone for trainee fighter pilots from the UK, Norway and Denmark when the first intake of Nato Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) students get airborne in 1999.
Following nearly two years of talk since NFTC announced its programme at Le Bourget 1995, the military/industry funded partnership was finally launched in April.
Contracts are currently being negotiated with Embraer and British Aerospace which will provide the 23 EMB-314 Super Tucanos and 17 Hawk 115s which will be used to train the first intake of non-Canadian students.
Speaking at the show yesterday, Brig Gen Clark Little, chief of staff operations, Canadian Forces, said that having received written confirmation of participation from the UK, Norway and Denmark, he expected the first intake of students to number 20 to 25.
Capacity
He added that total capacity for non-Canadian participants on the 14 to 18-month programme would be around 90.
This would translate into a requirement for nearly 50 Hawks and more than 40 Tucanos.
A timescale for such growth will of course depend upon getting other Nato nations to commit to using the programme which, based on completion of all three stages of training, costs in the region of $1.25million per pilot
The programme is a joint venture between the Canadian government and Bombardier. Industry team members include BAe, Embraer and CAE which are providing flight simulators and technical servicing.
The training aircraft will be owned by Bombardier and the industry team members will have responsibility for maintenance.
Brig Gen Little, supported by George Anderson, Bombardier's director international aviation training, and John Cockburn, BAe operations director for Canada, denied a suggestion that the programme would receive money from the Canadian government.
"All nations participating in the programme will be treated equitably, all invoiced simultaneously for the training services they receive. The programme is designed to be commercially viable," he said.
Framework
"While the Canadian Forces provide the training and military framework, infrastructure and the aircraft are provided by the industry partners."
Nations which are purchasing Hawks from BAe will not automatically be eligible for the Nato training as part of an add-on package, said Cockburn, but NFTC is now "aggressively" targeting other Nato and interested nations to elicit firm commitments of support.
Source: Flight Daily News
