CAE announced it has been awarded contracts by the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces valued at approximately C$145 million.
With potential phases, the UAE NTC program could be worth approximately C$450 million over the next 15 years.
The contracts are for CAE to design and develop a comprehensive Naval Training Centre (NTC) for the UAE Navy and to provide the UAE Joint Aviation Command (JAC) with a suite of helicopter simulators and training devices for the NorthStar Aviation 407 Multi-Role Helicopter (407MRH) as well as the Sikorsky UH-60M Armed Black Hawk (ABH).
The purpose-built NTC facility will feature a range of integrated ship simulation-based training suites as well as maritime aircraft sensor stations that will be used to deliver training for individuals, command teams, and whole ship crews. In addition, the overall naval training system for the UAE Navy is being designed for networking and interoperability to enable distributed multi-platform and joint mission training.
“This is a major strategic win for CAE and clearly demonstrates our capabilities to serve as a training systems integrator across all defense domains,” said Gene Colabatistto, CAE’s Group President, Defence & Security.
“The UAE Navy selected CAE as its training partner because of our focus and expertise in training, and the result will be a comprehensive naval training enterprise that helps the UAE Navy achieve a high level of fleet operational readiness,” he added.
The UAE Naval Training Centre will be located in Taweelah with connectivity to several other naval and air bases throughout the UAE. The UAE NTC is expected to be complete and ready-for-training by early 2019.
CAE was also awarded a contract to provide the UAE Joint Aviation Command (JAC) with a suite of helicopter simulators and training devices for the NorthStar Aviation 407 Multi-Role Helicopter (407MRH) as well as the Sikorsky UH-60M Armed Black Hawk (ABH).
For the NorthStar Aviation 407MRH, a modified variant of the Bell 407GX specifically designed for light attack, close air support, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, CAE will design and manufacture a high-fidelity, fixed-based Level-7 equivalent flight training device (FTD). In addition, CAE will provide a suite of desktop trainers and brief/debrief systems. The full suite of 407MRH training systems will be delivered to the UAE during 2017. CAE will be working closely with NorthStar Aviation, who last year signed a collaboration agreement with CAE to conduct flight test data collection and support the development of high-fidelity training devices for the 407MRH.
“The UAE as well as other Gulf Cooperation Council countries are making significant investments in simulation-based training. These will be the first simulator and training devices developed for the 407MRH so our partnership with NorthStar Aviation along with CAE's extensive experience with helicopter simulation will help ensure we deliver world-class training systems on-schedule,” said Gene Colabatistto, CAE's Group President, Defence & Security.
CAE will also design and manufacture a UH-60M ABH full-mission simulator for the UAE JAC to be delivered in 2018. The UH-60M/ABH full-mission simulator representing the armed variant of the Black Hawk helicopter will feature a six-degree-of-freedom motion system, vibration platform, and extreme field-of-view display system.
The simulators and training devices for both the 407MRH and UH-60M will include the CAE Medallion-6000 image generator with Common Database (CDB) architecture, which will further enhance networked, interoperable mission training across platforms.
