CAE USA is preparing to ship the first simulator for the Boeing A/MH-6 Little Bird to the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment – Airborne at Ft Campbell, Kentucky. Delivery was delayed to equip the simulator with CAE's Medallion-S visual system, combined with the Lockheed Martin TopScene high-resolution image generator used by the unit for mission rehearsal.
The A/MH-6 machine is scheduled to enter service later this year, joining existing Boeing MH-47 and Sikorsky MH-60 combat mission simulators that CAE has upgraded with combined Medallion-S/TopScene visual systems.
Two further simulators in production for the unit – for the MH-47G and MH-60K Block 1 – will be the first to implement a new standard database architecture developed by CAE. The Common Environment/Common Database (CE/CDB) architecture reduces the time required to produce fully correlated visual, radar and other simulation databases and is expected to be standard on future training and mission-rehearsal systems for US Special Operations Command.
CAE developed the CE/CDB standard under an $8 million contract awarded in March 2004, and has received a $12 million contract to implement the architecture for the first time on the new MH-47 and MH-60 simulators set for delivery next year. The CE/CDB-based Medallion-S visual systems on these machines are required to provide the mission-rehearsal capability offered by TopScene, says CAE.
GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
