PARIS \u2014 The French Army is moving toward using simulators to prepare helicopter crews to fly a mission, the next evolution beyond the standard training on flight simulators, an industry executive said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Preparing crew mission is key,” said Vincent Megaides, Thales marketing and strategy director for training and simulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gearing up helicopter crews for a mission reflects a swift evolution of technology and products developed for training, he said. In Europe, the main helicopters are the NH90 transport and Tiger attack helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airbus Helicopters is working on a mission simulator that would train pilots and cabin crew of several helicopters all <\/span>linked together, with a plan to be “ready for operation in three or four years,” said Frederic Dussol, head of governmental training and simulation programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A glimpse of the future can be seen in a live training exercise, dubbed Aozou, conducted by the French Army Light Aviation from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5, in which crews flew real and simulated helicopters hooked to up on <\/span>a network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That major exercise connected for the first time virtual and real helicopters, “a key axis in the future,” Megaides said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The French Army linked up the simulation centers at the 1st Combat Helicopter Regiment based at Phalsbourg and 3rd Combat Helicopter Regiment at Etain, eastern <\/span>France, with the help of a Thales network. Crews at the two bases, more than 150 kilometers apart, flew 12 simulated helicopters under the helicopter mission trainer, a system developed by Thales and the Direction G\u00e9n\u00e9rale de l’Armement procurement office, the electronics company said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army also plugged the simulators for the first time into “the battlefield database,” which allowed the crews to simulate flying in the theater of operations, Megaides said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That integration meant the simulated helicopters were seen by the commanders and crews as real helicopters in the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a capability cuts the cost of live training by deploying fewer real helicopters, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aozou refers to a strip of land between Chad, a former French colony, and Libya. The two neighbors clashed in 1987 in a bloody conflict dubbed the Toyota War, with the latter laying claim to the Aozou strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) awarded Dec. 16 <\/span>a contract on Dec. 16 to Thales and Rheinmetall Defence Electronics for the upgrade of 18 simulators for the Tiger, with the French company also supplying two new cockpit procedure trainers for the Phalsbourg base, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two new<\/span> simulators and upgrades are due for delivery toward the end of 2017, Megaides said. No financial details were available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The upgrade allows training for the latest versions of the more heavily armed French appui-protection model and German Unterst\u00fctzungshubschrauber (UHT) anti-tank Tiger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That deal covers eight full-mission simulators \u2014 those moving pods that replicate the flight movement \u2014 and 10 cockpit procedure trainers at the French-German Tiger training center at Luc, the French 5th Combat Helicopter Regiment at Pau, and the German 36th Combat Helicopter Regiment at Fritzlar base, central <\/span>Germany, Thales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full mission simulator has a larger field of vision than the static cockpit procedure trainer, Megaides said. The upgrade includes high-resolution graphics that generate more realistic views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The contract includes 10 years of support, OCCAR said on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some export prospects exist for the NH90 simulator, Megaides said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbus Helicopters is working on a mission training simulator for military crews with a civil version to follow, Dussol said. That package would include not just the pilots in the cockpit but also a cabin console for the crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The planned system would connect a number of simulators with pilots flying virtual Tigers and NH90s while tracking air and ground targets. For instance, several NH90 aircrew could work together to track a submarine, with the training software silently running a virtual undersea vessel. Real maritime training is much more costly, Dussol said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbus has also delivered training packages for maintenance personnel, with the most sophisticated package for the NH90 at the Luc base for use by French Army and Navy teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbus Helicopters, which builds the Tiger, supplied the training package for the initial French appui-protection version. Airbus holds 62.5 percent of NHIndustries, AgustaWestland 32 percent and Fokker 5.5 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thales will supply three flight simulators to train Australian Army and Navy helicopter pilots, the company said Nov. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n