Leveraged Experience Into Multiple Training Service Contracts

Elbit Systems is marking 20 years of operating the sixteen Grob G-120-AI aircraft fleet of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), under an arrangement established in 2002 as a multi-year Private Finance Initiative, under which Elbit procures, operates and maintains the fleet, providing the IAF with training flight hours. Since the start of operations, high customer satisfaction levels have earned Elbit Systems follow-on contracts to deliver service to the IAF for two consecutive 10-year periods. During that time, the fleet has delivered 140,000 training sorties and 85,000 flight hours, while maintaining availability rate of 94.7%. The company’s expertise in delivering, operating and maintaining aircraft fleets has resulted in a continuous expansion of its activity in this area.

The Israeli MoD has contracted the company to handle two additional IAF training fleets – the Texan T-6 basic trainer and the M-346 advanced jet trainer – while the Ministry of Public Security also entrusted it with delivery, operation and maintenance of the Air Tractor aerial firefighting fleet. In 2016 Affinity, an Elbit Systems joint venture, was contracted to procure, operate and maintain the Phenom 100, Beechcraft T-6 and GROB G-120TP fleets of Britain’s Military Flying Training System (MFTS) and in 2020 Elbit secured a contract valued at approx. $1.7 billion from Greece to establish and operate the Hellenic International Flight Training Center with fleets of T-6 and M-346. In all, the company operates over 170 aircraft.

Referencing the almost 95% availability rate achieved for the IAF trainer fleet, Adi Raviv, Elbit Systems VP for Flight Academies and Services, observed that “Delivering such a top service rate, with an emphasis on safety and availability, takes highly professional technical teams, well organized logistics and rigorous management”.