CAE announced that Boeing has ordered simulator hardware for six additional P-8A Poseidon operational flight trainers (OFTs) and five additional P-8A Aircraft equipment Desktop Environment (AeDTEs) trainers for the United States Navy.
CAE will manufacture the P-8A simulators and a suite of P-8A (AeDTE) trainers, which will be used as role playing stations during training of P-8A aircrews.
The order for two of the P-8A OFTs was booked during CAE's fiscal 2014 third quarter. The order for four of the P-8A OFTs was booked during CAE's fiscal 2014 fourth quarter and included in the total value of contracts CAE announced today.
“The P-8A program is a perfect example of the Navy's increasing use of synthetic training and we are pleased to be working with Boeing to deliver some of the high-fidelity training systems required for training P-8A aircrews,” said Ray Duquette, President and General Manager, CAE USA.
CAE has previously been awarded contracts from Boeing to design and manufacture hardware for ten P-8A OFTs and 17 P-8A AeDTE trainers. This order brings the total number of P-8A OFTs that CAE will develop for the U.S. Navy to 16. CAE designs and manufactures the P-8A OFT hardware to Level D standards, the highest qualification for flight simulators.
CAE also provides the 737-800 OFT software baseline and simulation-based software lab environment that is used for P-8A OFT development and integration tasks. CAE then delivers the simulators to Boeing, who installs and integrates software specific to the P-8A aircraft and completes delivery to the U.S. Navy.
The P-8A Poseidon is a new long-range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft currently being developed for the U.S. Navy by prime contractor Boeing. The P-8A is a derivative of Boeing's next-generation 737-800 aircraft and will be used for maritime and littoral operations.
The U.S. Navy plans to acquire 117 P-8A aircraft to replace its current fleet of P-3C Orion aircraft. The Indian Navy, the first international customer for the P-8, has ordered eight P-8I aircraft.
