Potential bidders for the UK Military Flying Training System's fixed-wing, rotary and rear-crew elements have been issued with pre-qualification questionnaires to register their interest in the more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion) requirements.
Due to be completed by 17 June, the documents will help to inform the Ministry of Defence's training system partner, Lockheed Martin/VT joint venture Ascent Flight Training, of potential equipment solutions.
While the UK's new coalition government is to conduct a Strategic Defence Review into its spending priorities, Ascent managing director Barry Thornton believes the tri-service MFTS programme is unlikely to undergo major changes to current planning assumptions.
"There's an enduring need for training tomorrow's frontline aircrew. There's no reason why it should be threatened - flying hours are not optional," he says.
"MFTS continues to deliver value for money, and it's improving," says Thornton. "We will remove holdovers and gaps in training, and do it at a lower cost. I'm really confident that it's all moving in the right direction."
Ascent's current training system design remains "very much the favoured solution", he says, and "through-life costs will be highly important in the decision process" for selecting the new equipment, which is expected to remain in use for around 25 years.
BAE Systems says it intends to respond to the questionnaires for all three new elements as a potential prime contractor for the remainder of the MFTS aircraft fleet.
VT has completed site surveys at several bases likely to be used as part of the future MFTS infrastructure, with these including RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire and RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.
Ascent is also looking at the possibility of conducting more helicopter training at frontline bases to "download" work from the operational conversion unit-level, after first training students at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire.
Aircraft already acquired for the MFTS infrastructure include BAE's Hawk T2 advanced jet trainer (below), now based at RAF Valley in north Wales. Cockpits for the type's two full-motion simulators have been sent to CAE in Montreal, Canada, for the integration of their visual systems, and the first students will begin their instruction on the aircraft in 2011.
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© Craig Hoyle/Flightglobal |
The first of four Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ERs now being converted for the Royal Navy's observer training task will be rolled out at FR Aviation's Bournemouth site in Dorset around July.
Source: Flight International
