Lockheed Martin has been selected to build and operate privately financed F-16 training centres for the US Air Force. The contract award is the latest under the USAF's Distributed Mission Training (DMT) programme.
The first two of up to 18 F-16 mission training centres (MTCs) are to be operational by mid-2002, at Mountain Home and Shaw AFBs. Each MTC will house two to four training devices which will be networked locally and with other sites via the USAF's planned DMT long-haul network.
Charles McCoy, Lockheed Martin's F-16 MTC programme director, says the "fee-for-service" contract is expected to be worth $176 million over the first seven years of operation.
The programme brings together several Lockheed Martin divisions, with LM Tactical Defense Systems in Akron, Ohio, as lead.
According to McCoy, there will be three levels of MTC: Level C will be the "premier" configuration, while Level B will lack some components and Level A will be the most austere. Level A and B sites will be upgradable. The initial two sites will be Level B, but upgraded to Level C within six months.
Under the DMT programme, industry finances construction of the training centres and owns the equipment, which the USAF pays by the hour to use. Boeing won the first contract, to establish F-15 training centres.
A separate competition will run to select a contractor to integrate and operate the USAF's planned DMT long-haul network.
Source: Flight International
