Indra to help develop third NH90 sim for Spain

The Spanish Armed Forces has awarded Indra a €19,2 million ($20.7 million) contract to develop and supply a new full flight simulator (FMS) for the Spanish Army’s NH90 helicopter fleet, the company announced on 16 January.

This is the third NH90 simulator Indra has developed for Spain.

The new device will be added to two that already operate in the Helicopter Simulation Centre, implemented by Indra for the Airmobile Forces of the Army at the Agoncillo base in La Rioja.

Indra said in a statement that one of the important features of the NH90 simulator is that it is based on real avionics equipment on board, ‘which provides the greatest realism in training and ensures that future evolutions of the aircraft are easily replicable in the FMS’.

The FMS can reduce the necessary flight hours by 40% while guaranteeing the best training of pilots, Indra said.

The simulator can also reproduce any weather conditions, day and night, and allows the use of the helicopter's real image intensifier tubes for simulation in flights with night vision goggles.

Another functionality of the FMS system is a network simulation architecture, based on the HLA (High Level Architecture) standard, which allows joint tactical training of a mission from several simulators simultaneously, located in different bases and with different models of aircraft and platforms.

Spain currently operates 25 NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopters with an expected out-of-service date of 2054.