CAE Australia has been awarded a $26 million contract to upgrade an aircraft simulator and other training systems as part of the Lockheed-Martin C-130J Hercules airlifter Block Upgrade Program at RAAF Base Richmond, New South Wales.
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the upgrade “will equip Defence with a state-of-the-art C-130J aircraft simulator so that our Air Force can access the highest quality of training available,”
She added that the partnership with CAE Australia would deliver game-changing capability for the Air Force.
A Defence spokesperson told APDR in an email response to questions that the Full Flight Mission C-130J Hercules Simulator at RAAF Base Richmond “will reflect aircraft cockpit and performance upgrades, allowing pilots and maintainers to train on up-to-date avionics systems, with zero transition training to the live aircraft. Users will experience the same cognitive load, task saturation and tactile training as in the live aircraft, minimising negative training transfer”, while continuing to provide the same level of operational fidelity as its predecessor.
“The pilot and loadmaster training environment (computer-based training aid) can be used standalone or interfaced with the physical fuselage trainer. This allows greater interaction and practical application of the software-based course,” the spokesperson added.
In addition, Defence also says that the upgrade to the pilot and loadmaster training environment and maintenance training environment training aids will improve courseware delivery and management, and replace an obsolete architecture with a more modern network. The new hardware solution will support an upgraded simulation to the same baseline as the flight simulator, allowing the skillsets to be immediately transferrable to the physical environment.
It is planned for the RAAF’s fleet of 12 C-130Js to be upgraded to the Block 7.0/8.1 standard. The upgrade covers a range of new operational needs for the aircraft which need to be replicated within the training systems, and include:
· Mission Computer – Operational Flight Program (MC‐OFP). This upgrades the aircraft mission computer to address obsolescence issues expected with the current system.
· Civil GPS will be implemented updating the communication, navigation and identification upgrade, required to meet mandatory international required navigation performance for unrestricted flight across all civil routes.
The first students will commence training on the new simulator and training systems in early 2023, which is designed to train 16 pilots, 8 loadmasters and up to 100 maintenance crew each calendar year.
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