Babcock France is to acquire 22 new Pilatus Aircraft PC-7 MkX trainers for a new contract with the French armed forces.

Awarded on 10 January by the country’s DGA procurement body, the 17-year deal will see Babcock provide initial training to French air force and navy pilots under the Mentor2 programme.

PC7_Mentor2-c-Pilatus

Source: Pilatus Aircraft

Babcock France will operate 22 PC-7s for the training contract

Babcock will also provide 12 simulators for the contract, which will be operated from Salon-de-Provence air base in southern France.

The new aircraft will replace an existing fleet of Cirrus SR20s and Grob Aircraft G120As made available under a deal with the Airbus Flight Academy.

Also including through-life support of the aircraft, infrastructure and pilot equipment, the agreement will see delivery of nearly 11,000 flight and 6,500 simulator training hours to approximately 120 students per year.

Babcock was selected as preferred bidder for Mentor2 in November. Since 2018, it has been providing advanced training for French air force crews on 26 PC-21s at Cognac air base through the Fomedec and Mentor1 programmes.

Dominic Perry is deputy editor of Flight International but also contributes extensively to flightglobal.com. Although specialising in the coverage of the helicopter industry, he has written on most topics in aerospace – be they commercial, defence or business aviation. In addition, there has been an increasing focus on the decarbonisation of the industry and zero-emission flight initiatives.View full Profile

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