Design, Build and Deliver New Training Centre Facility

CAE has been contracted by Airbus to design, build and deliver a new training centre to support the Royal Canadian Air Force 9RCAF) Fixed Wing Search & Rescue (FWSAR) programme. The RCAF selected the Airbus C295W for FWSAR in December and will receive 16 specially configured aircraft.

The new training centre will contain a number of CAE-built devices for the C295W, including: a full flight simulator; a cockpit procedures trainer; a sensor station simulator for rear-crew training; an operational mission simulator for full crew mission training; eight mission procedures trainers; one maintenance trainer; one cockpit systems part task trainer; and 10 classrooms featuring CAE Simfinity virtual maintenance trainers.

Worth approximately C$200 million over the next 11 years, with options to extend for an additional 15 years that would increase the value to over $300 million, the contract is divided into three phases. In the acquisition and development phase (the next three years) CAE will lead the design and construction of a new training centre facility at 19 Wing in Comox, BC. The centre will be delivered in late 2019 and will be followed by a three-year In-Service Support (ISS) transition period for the aircrew and maintenance crew training programmes. Phase three will follow with a 20-year ISS period, divided into a base 5-year and three optional 5-year periods.

During the ISS phase, CAE will provide a range of training services and upgrade and maintain hardware and software and will be responsible for providing academic and simulator instructors for the aircrew and maintenance training programmes.

“We are honoured to serve as the training systems integrator to lead the overall design and development of a comprehensive C295W training solution for aircrews and maintainers,” Joe Armstrong, Vice President and General Manager, CAE Canada, explained. “The search and rescue mission in Canada is both critical and challenging, and we are proud that we will play a role in helping train and prepare the RCAF for this mission.”

The C295W training programme will maintain and create approximately 300 jobs in Canada over the three-year development phase and approximately 50 jobs, primarily in Comox, BC, over the in-service support phases. As part of the overall training programme, CAE will sub-contract with a pan-Canadian team of small-to-medium-sized businesses.