Instructors, Maintenance & Support for FMS CAE announced at Avalon 2017 in Australia on 1 March that it has been awarded a contract from Australia’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group to provide comprehensive support and training services for the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) HAWK Mk127 training system.

The contract calls for CAE to provide classroom and simulator instructors at RAAF Base Williamtown, in addition to providing maintenance and support services on the three CAE-built HAWK Mk127 full-mission simulators (FMS) currently being installed at both Williamtown and RAAF Base Pearce, which are being delivered under a separate subcontract from BAE Systems under the Project AIR5438 Lead-in Fighter Capability Assurance Programme. The first two FMS are already installed at Williamtown and Pearce respectively and are undergoing final on-site testing and integration before they are expected to be declared ready-for-training by approximately May this year. The third FMS will be delivered to Williamtown in mid-2017.

The HAWK Mk127 FMS all feature a high-fidelity replica of the HAWK Mk127 cockpit, surrounded by an 11ft projection dome display featuring the CAE MEDALLION-6000 image generator and Boeing’s Constant Resolution Visual System. They also feature the Common Database (CDB) architecture recently adopted by the Open Geospatial Consortium as an international standard for the creation of synthetic environment databases.

“We are excited to begin supporting the Royal Australian Air Force’s HAWK Mk127 lead-in fighter training program that plays a vital role in preparing fast-jet aircrews for the RAAF’s next-generation fighter aircraft,” Ian Bell, CAE’s Vice President and General Manager, Asia-Pacific/Middle East, said. “Our instructors will work closely with the RAAF to deliver high-quality academic and simulator training that will contribute to students receiving enhanced training as they prepare to fly fast jet aircraft.”