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Eurofighter Program:

A Simulator program for the training needs of the pilots

Berlin, 01 May 2002

Within the Eurofighter Program, a special Support Phase Program Contract has been given to industry, for providing training aids to the air forces of the Eurofighter partner Nations, i.e. Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. The contract is in place since April 2001 and has the aim to develop flight and mission trainers (simulators) for training the air force pilots, when series production aircraft are being delivered to the Nations.

Training of Eurofighter jet pilots starts usually with Class room training, where Computer based training aids provide the first familiarisation with the aircraft and its systems. The student then progresses to the simulator for familiarisation with the aircraft functionalities, up to and including flight training, mission training and finally combat ready training, before he can actually progress to flying the real Eurofighter aircraft.

For that purpose, simulators have to be built to provide training realism of the real aircraft with respect to the scenario, the enemy, the threat, simulating the aircraft systems and the sensors used in the air combat scenario.

EADS-Deutschland, the other three Eurofighter Partner Companies Alenia Aerospazio, British Aerospace Systems and EADS CASA and Eurofighter- Simulator Systems have received the contract one year ago to develop and build 32 simulators. There will be 18 Full Mission Simulators (FMS), 9 Cockpit Trainers I Interactive Pilot Stations with enhanced Visual System and 4 deployable Cockpit Trainers. One Reference System will be used for long-term In-Service Support of the ASTA, in particular for Software upgrades during the life-time of the aircraft. The simulators will be located at 12 different Main Operating Bases (MOB) of the four Nations, i.e. in the UK, Germany, Italy and in Spain.

The delivery programme will start in 2004 where ASTA corresponding to Tranche 1 standard of the aircraft will be delivered to the squadrons, it will continue with Tranche 2 standard over 2005 to 2007 and eventually end with Tranche 3 standard in the years between 2007 and 2010. Currently the programme is in development. The early Cockpit trainer version will be delivered to all Nations in mid 2004. Germany has also ordered an "Interim Training Device", which is a cockpit simulator with limited performance, however already available and ready for training for the German Air force in Laage by April 2003. Initially it will be provided in autumn 2002 to the EADS facilities in Manching, where the Joint Integration Facility for all the ASTA development versions will be located. An ASTA Data Preparation Facility is also foreseen for all Nations.

The ASTA suite for pilot training consists of a Full Mission Simulator, a Cockpit Trainer / Interactive Pilot Station with enhanced visual system, deployable cockpit trainer and the necessary ancillary items to create a comprehensive Training Facility. These are the Instructor Operator Station, the Briefing and Debriefing Facilities and the classroom training capabilities.

With a Full Mission Simulator, the following Training Needs can be fulfilled: Mission practice and rehearsal with training of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions against multiple targets in a hostile environment, including ground and airborne threats and Electronic Warfare, co-operative training, including formation flying and multi-aircraft operations, training in tactical air operations over wide range of scenarios including all threats and electronic warfare, development and evaluation of tactics and procedures, practice of war roles, training to combat ready status, conversion to type and continuation training. The FMS will provide simulation of complex war - and peacetime scenarios, incl. ground & air threats, electronic warfare, Weapon System Simulation, accurate, realistic simulation of entire EF weapon system in all normal and reversionary modes, incl. failure simulation, a realistic copy of cockpit 1:1, the simulation of the performance characteristics of alternate aircraft and Briefing / Debriefing Facilities.

LAN and WAN networks to other Sites will also be provided to allow training of joint missions or air to air combat.

The Instructor Operating Station IOS will provide for simulator control functions, tactical displays, interactive target control, assessment of training results and recording / replay device for debriefing.

The cockpit trainer can be used as a stand-alone Trainer. It provides for basic procedure training, incl. transition from a 2-dimensional CBT (classroom) environment to a hands-on 3-dimensional (representative) cockpit trainer, initial practical familiarisation with failures, warnings and assoc. emergency procedures and enhanced procedural training throughout all phases of Eurofighter operation. The CT / Interactive Pilot Station IPS is a cockpit based training device. When linked to FMS or other IPS it provides co-operative and non-co-operative tactical training to support FMS training functions, allows being part of a multi-participant tactical mission training scenarios (when networked with other ASTA via LAN or WAN to other MOB). It also provides for simulation of alternate aircraft. The scenario simulation is comparable in fidelity with FMS.

The Visual Systems are different for the FMS and the CT/IPS-E: The FMS has a Dome with a Field of view of 3600, 13 channel high fidelity, with 6 target projectors, whilst the CT/IPS-E has a Field of view of 2200 horizontal, 1000 vertical and a 5 channel Image generator with high fidelity for all elements of generated scenario & simulated sensors. Infrared (FLIR) and Night Vision Device (NVED) will be simulated.

With revenues amounting to EUR 30.8 billion in 2001 (excluding Airbus UK) and a workforce of over 100,000, EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company is the largest European aerospace company and the No 2 worldwide. It is active in the sectors of commercial aircraft, helicopters, space, military transport and combat aircraft as well as defence technology and services. Among others, EADS holds 80 percent of Airbus, 75 percent of the space company Astrium, 100 percent of the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter, 43 percent in the Eurofighter programme and 37.5 percent in the missile company MBDA.

Your contact:

Military Aircraft
Wolfram Wolff
Phone: +49-89-607 25711
Fax: +49-89-607 22455
e-mail: wolfram.wolff@m.eads.net