QinetiQ to continue UK MoD synthetic mission training

QinetiQ will continue to provide synthetic air and land mission training for the UK military for the next five years under a £33 million contract awarded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), announced on 11 August.

The Distributed Synthetic Air Land Training 2 (DSALT2) programme has been developed over the last five years by QinetiQ with the MoD. Based at the Air Battlespace Training Centre at RAF Waddington in Lincoln, the programme provides pre-deployment training to front-line personnel during air-land operations.

DSALT2 is capable of reconfiguration and the training will evolve over the next five years to meet the future operational needs of the military.

Under the contract, QinetiQ’s Training business will provide, maintain and support the programme on behalf of the UK Defence Equipment & Support organisation, with support from sub-contractors Boeing and Plexsys, amongst others.

Russ Cole, flight simulation and synthetic trainers team leader, MoD Defence Equipment and Support, said: ‘Simulation and synthetic training is an extremely important part of training our modern armed forces and, although it will never fully replace live training, the ability to practice and train in highly realistic but safe environments is a vital, life-saving capability essential to effective mission preparation.’

Miles Adcock, managing director, QinetiQ Training, added: ‘We are delighted to have secured this contract with the MoD. Our training provides the Royal Air Force and army with a realistic representation of the operating environment they will face, which is critical to achieving mission success. It allows trainees across the UK to train together in the same mission, in real time, with our Coalition partners across the globe.  We train the UK armed forces in the safe and effective employment of weapons systems available in an air-land battle, including artillery, mortars, attack helicopters, fixed wing and unmanned aircraft. Such realistic conditions are not usually available outside actual operations and our training provides vital preparation ahead of missions.’

The facilities at RAF Waddington include a number of simulators, including domes and tents to accommodate a variety of military aircraft and teams. Generic virtual role-playing desktop simulators, computer generated forces workstations and a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle workstation are also located at the facility, supporting the staff instructors.