Boeing orders P-8A OFT hardware
Boeing has ordered simulator hardware from CAE for four additional P-8A Poseidon operational flight trainers (OFTs), CAE announced on 29 June.
Of the four new OFTs, two are for the US Navy, bringing its total count to 18 Poseidon OFTs. The other two new OFTs are for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as part of a cooperative programme with the navy to provide the RAAF a comprehensive P-8A training system.
The RAAF's P-8A Poseidon OFTs will be similar to the OFTs being developed for the navy. The simulator hardware is designed and manufactured to the highest Level D standards. CAE also provides the simulation-based software lab environment and 737-800 OFT software baseline used for OFT development and integration. The simulators are delivered to Boeing, which installs P-8A specific software.
The two OFTs for the RAAF will be delivered to the Edinburgh base in late 2017, and the navy's two P-8A OFTs will be delivered to the Whidbey Island naval air station in 2017.
Ray Duquette, president and general manager, CAE USA, said: 'We are pleased to be supporting Boeing and the US Navy in developing the P-8A simulators for the RAAF, marking the first international sale of a comprehensive P-8A training system.
'The navy has significantly increased the amount of synthetic training it does as part of the P-8A training programme, and the high-fidelity P-8A operational flight trainers developed by CAE and Boeing play a key role in the overall P-8A training curriculum.'
P-8 Poseidon