AgustaWestland wins £76 Million Contract for Training Facility from UK Defense

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to design and develop an integrated training solution which includes the building and equipping of a new modern training centre for the AW159 Lynx Wildcat helicopter. The state-of-the-art training centre will be located at RNAS Yeovilton in South West England, alongside Royal Navy and British Army AW159 Lynx Wildcat squadrons. The facility will provide training courses for Army aircrew and maintainers starting in January 2013, with training for Royal Navy aircrew and maintainers starting January 2014. John Ponsonby, Senior Vice President Training, AgustaWestland said “This contract represents a step change in the way AgustaWestland is partnering with the MoD to deliver world-class training for front line crews, whilst ensuring we provide value for money within every part of the service.” He added “This contract underlines AgustaWestland’s commitment to provide the highest quality of training to Lynx Wildcat aircrew and maintainers, thereby ensuring the front line units are fully prepared for whatever missions they may be asked to undertake.” The Wildcat Training Centre will be equipped to provide air crew and maintainer training using a wide range of synthetic training technology including two Full Mission Simulators (FMS), Flight Training Device (FTD) and Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT). All devices will be capable of delivering Army or Royal Navy conversion and mission training. Each of the Full Mission Simulators has six degrees of freedom to provide the acceleration sensations associated with helicopter flying together with a visual system that complies with JAR-FSTD-H Level D, to give highly realistic and cost effective training. The maintenance training facility will be equipped with a suite of synthetic training devices covering the aircrafts mechanical, avionic and weapon systems.