German Navy to Receive CAE's NH90 Sea Lion Training Solution

CAE has signed a contract with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) to provide the German Navy with a comprehensive training solution for the NH90 Sea Lion helicopter.

The German Navy is procuring a fleet of 18 NH90 Sea Lion helicopters to support search and rescue (SAR) operations and replace the venerable Sea King MK41 helicopter, which has been in operation for over 40 years for the German Navy. The German Navy NH90 Sea Lion training solution will be based near German Naval Airbase Nordholz, which is the home of the German Naval Air Command.

Under terms of the contract, CAE will design and manufacture a suite of NH90 Seat Lion training devices for the German Navy, including NH90 full-mission simulator capable of compliance to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Level D qualification, the highest for flight simulators;

NH90 cockpit procedures trainer;

NH90 operational tactics trainer for training rear-crew tactical coordinators (TACCO) and sensor operators, and capable of networking with the full-mission simulator to provide full-crew mission training;

NH90 winch and hoist operator trainer, which will also be capable of networking to other NH90 training devices for full-crew training.

In addition, CAE will construct an interim training facility just outside the main entrance to German Naval Airbase Nordholz and will provide on-site training support and maintenance services upon delivery.  The new NH90 Sea Lion training system is expected to be operational by the second half of 2022.

The NH90 full-mission simulator for the German Navy will feature a range of CAE’s core simulation technologies. These technologies include: six degree-of-freedom (DOF) electric motion system; high-performance vibration platform to replicate vibration cues critical to helicopter pilots; and a high-fidelity CAE Medallion-6000 image generator. The NH90 training devices will also feature the Open Geospatial Consortium Common Database (OGC CDB) architecture, an international standard for the creation of synthetic environment databases that has been adopted on a range of German Armed Forces training systems.