L-3 Link Simulation & Training wins Naval Air Warfare contract to build Royal Malaysian Air Force F/A-18D tactical trainer

ARLINGTON, Texas, 27 March 2012. L-3 Link Simulation & Training (L-3 Link) won a Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division contract to build an F/A-18D Tactical Operational Flight Trainer (TOFT) for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

The F/A-18D TOFT will include two cockpits, one for the pilot and another for the weapons systems officer, and simulate formation flight, suppression of enemy defenses, reconnaissance, forward air control, close air support, air refueling, emergency procedures, and day and night strike missions. Each cockpit features L-3 Link’s immersive, 360-degree, high-definition SimuSphere HD-9 visual display, helping maximize RMAF F/A-18D aircrew training and readiness. By combining high-definition databases, image generation systems, physics-based processing, and a visual system display, SimuSphere HD-9 supports real-world day and night out-the-window visual cueing and high-fidelity cockpit sensors.

Night operations will be supported by the use of actual flight night-vision goggles stimulated with real-world effects, including halos, light blooms, and weapon launches and detonations. The TOFT will also include Link’s brief/debrief system and an instructor/operator station.

The F/A-18D TOFT will be integrated with a correlated visual system database that encompasses all of Malaysia. The trainer marks the 18th F/A-18 TOFT L-3 Link will deliver to an international customer. The F/A-18D TOFT is scheduled for delivery during the first quarter of 2014 to an RMAF base in Butterworth, Malaysia.

“This state-of-the-art F/A-18D Tactical Operational Flight Trainer will leverage proven simulation technologies we have fielded to the U.S. Navy and other international F/A-18 customers,” says Leonard Genna, president of L-3 Link.