CAE wins Army, Navy, and Air Force simulation contracts

Posted by John McHaleMONTREAL, 9 July 2011. CAE (NYSE: CAE; TSX: CAE) won a series of contracts from the U.S. military for their simulation and training systems. They include a contract to develop two MH-60R helicopter simulators for the U.S. Navy, designing and manufacturing training devices under a contract with Boeing for the U.S. Air Force's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP), and a contract from the U.S. Army to develop a suite of Abrams tank maintenance trainers.Navy officials exercised options for CAE USA to design and manufacture two additional MH-60R tactical operational flight trainers (TOFTs). The first flight simulator will be a fixed-based MH-60R TOFT delivered to Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Fla., in late 2013. The other MH-60R TOFT also will be a fixed-based simulator for the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, in late 2013. As part of a subcontract with Boeing, CAE engineers will design and manufacture a new C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) weapon systems trainer (WST) and a second C-130 AMP avionics part task trainer (APTT) for the Air Force C-130 Aircrew Training System at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., in 2014. CAE USA officials signed a contract with the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) to design and manufacture five additional Abrams tank maintenance training systems, known as Abrams hands-on trainers (HOTs). The Abrams HOTs are high-fidelity replicas of the Abrams tank turret and are designed to give maintenance technicians diagnostic and hands-on training. The Abrams HOTs will be delivered in 2013 and 2014 to Army bases at Ft. Benning, Ga., and Ft. Lee, Va., and to the National Guard facility at Gowen Field, Idaho.CAE also is providing Professional Way Sdn Bhd, a Malaysia-based company, a CAE 3000 Series full-flight simulator (FFS) replicating the AW139 aircraft. The simulator will be deployed to a new training center to be established by Professional Way near Kuala Lumpur's Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport. Professional Way will then deliver AW139 simulator training for AgustaWestland's recently announced Authorized Training Center in Malaysia to serve customers in the Far and Southeast Asian regions. The AW139 FFS is scheduled for delivery in late 2012 and will be jointly developed by CAE and AgustaWestland.