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2017-09-07

French Air Force Opts For PC-21 For Future Pilot Training Programme

The first Pilatus PC-21 trainer for the FOMEDEC programme of the French Air Force made its first flight on July 13. The PC-21 is part of the FOMEDEC programme to modernise the training of French fighter pilots. The aim is to have a modern aircraft with the capabilities to prepare pilots for the Rafale.

The FOMEDEC contract was awarded in January to a team comprising Dassault Aviation and Babcock France. The two companies will own the aircraft and lease them to the French Air Force for the 11-year duration of the contract. Ownership will subsequently revert to the French Air Force.

According to Pilatus, the capabilities of the PC-21 make it ideally suited to a wide training envelope. It can be used from day one, eliminating the need for an elementary flying training fleet and also bridging the performance gap between traditional turboprop trainers and expensive lead-in fighters. It reportedly provides significant advantages over traditional turboprops and jet trainers.

Rockwell Collins will also be playing a key role in the French Air Force FOMEDEC training programme by providing a robust, proven and state-of-the-art visual display system for the Pilatus PC-21 simulators.

Under a subcontract awarded by CAE, Rockwell Collins will develop two Spectraview Visual Display Systems (VDS) in Salt Lake City, US, support CAE with integrating the systems at the CAE facility in Montreal, Canada, and support the final installation in France. The company will also be providing training for maintaining and operating the VDS, as well as spares.

Designed to support a variety of training requirements, SpectraView systems provide cost-effective, scalable and flexible options to satisfy single, tandem, and side-by-side seating configurations. Standard and customised configurations are available to meet specific training needs. It is a versatile solution designed to meet any training need, including air, ground and sea applications. These can include call-for-fire, forward air controller, shipboard and other military and commercial uses.

New beginning

Babcock Mission Critical Services France (BMCSF) is buying 17 Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers and forming a joint company with Dassault. Simulation specialist CAE will provide ground-training devices under a subcontract. The new requirement is known by the French acronym FOMEDEC, meaning the modernized and differentiated training of fighter aircraft crews.

The contract also includes the supply of three types of simulator and a mission preparation system. The PC-21s and the simulators will be based at Cognac, France, air force base. The French Air Force hopes to achieve initial operational capability by early 2019.A Dassault spokesman was quoted saying that the PC-21s will have some functionality that replicates the cockpit of the Rafale fighter.

Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, said, “As the manufacturer of the Rafale, the spearhead of the French fighters, and of its advanced training companion, the Alpha Jet, Dassault Aviation bolsters this new project with Babcock, an outstanding provider of support environments, for the benefit of the French Ministry of Defence. With this programme, we are very proud to keep on our enduring participation to the training of the French fighter pilots. Since 1959, our company has been the provider of the French fighter training courses.”

In the UK, Babcock is in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin named Ascent, which provides the entire UK Military Flying Training System (MFTS). But unlike MFTS, where Ascent also provides most of the instructor pilots (IPs), the French Air Force will continue to provide these in FOMDEC. The contract calls for between 11,000 and 13,500 annual flying hours, training 50 aircrews.

“We are delighted that our French company will be working as a key support partner on this major French defense contract,” said Archie Bethel, Chief Executive of Babcock International Group. “The project will draw on our expertise in the European aviation industry and our experience of delivering long-term military flight training programmes.”

In France, BMCSF is already providing a fleet of EC120 helicopters to train French army pilots at Dax, in a joint venture named HeliDax with Airco, the air training division of Defense Conseil International (DCI), the part-French government-owned training provider. BMCSF bought into HeliDax in 2014 when it acquired the 50-percent stake that was previously held by helicopter operator Avantis Aviation.

The new PC-21 aircraft and simulators will be based at Cognac, where they will replace the Grob G120A and Socata TB 30 Epsilon piston-powered trainers. They have been provided under contract by the French subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space, which was the main competitor to Babcock for the FOMEDEC contract, in a joint bid with Thales that also proposed using PC-21s. Other bidders are believed to have included Aero Vodochody, Alenia Aermacchi and DCI.

The high performance of the PC-21 will also allow it to also replace that part of the current fast jet-training syllabus that is flown on Alpha Jets based at Tours. But pilots will continue to fly advanced and weapons training courses at Cognac on the veteran Dassault/Dornier jet trainer, some of which will be upgraded by Dassault.

“I am delighted we have finally won another European air force for our PC-21,” Pilatus Chairman Oscar Schwenk was quoted saying. “An exceptionally rigorous selection process based on the strictest of criteria provides further proof that the PC-21 is the first choice worldwide for training military pilots. France is the eighth air force to choose the PC-21; we will soon have a total of 209 PC-21s flying successfully from bases around the world. I’m confident that other European air forces will follow France’s example.”

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