Lockheed Martin (LM) received a $253 million contract agreement to begin work on F-15SA pilot and maintenance training systems for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The technologies will provide a comprehensive ground-based training environment for Saudi Arabia's F-15SA modernization program.

Pilots will complete air-to-air combat, air-to-surface missions, air combat maneuvers and tactical intercepts with 360-degree full mission trainers. As a first for F-15 training, the systems will feature a single dome over the dual-seat cockpit to enable crew coordination training. Lockheed Martin will also deliver egress, avionics and desktop trainers for procedure training by pilots.

“The complement of F-15SA training systems starts with desktop trainers and progressively increases in capability to full mission weapons systems trainers,” said Jim Weitzel, Vice President of Training Solutions for Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems and Training business.
“This creates a cost-effective program since the appropriate level of technology is applied to meet the training objectives,” he added.

For maintainers, Lockheed Martin will provide virtual systems to enable training without the actual aircraft. The systems include basic maintenance, landing gear and arresting hook, armament, flight controls and jet fuel starter trainers.

Lockheed Martin will deliver the training systems by 2020. Work will be performed in Akron, Ohio, and Orlando, Fla. The contract is managed through a foreign military sales agreement by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Lockheed Martin has served as the Royal Saudi Air Force's F-15 training partner for more than three decades. The company also provides the service's weapons systems officer training program.

In addition to delivering training systems to Saudi Arabia, Lockheed Martin's F-15 training technologies are currently in operation by the United States, Israel and Japan.