Thales expands Tiger helicopter training capabilities

Key points

• 18 Tiger helicopter simulators to be upgraded at three training centres for French and German forces
• Two new Tiger cockpit procedure trainers for French forces
• Thales to provide support services for all instruction and training solutions

On the 16^th of December 2014, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) has awarded a contract to Thales, in partnership with Rheinmetall Defence Electronics (RDE), to supply or upgrade 20 Tiger combat helicopter simulators for the French and German armed forces.

Thales and its partner will upgrade 18 simulators to the latest Tiger helicopter standards. Eight Full Mission Simulators (FMS) and ten Cockpit Procedure Trainers (CPTs) will be upgraded at three training centres operated by French and German forces: the French-German Tiger aircrew training school (EFA) in Le Luc, France, the French Army’s 5^th combat helicopter regiment in Pau and the Fritzlar 36^th combat helicopter regiment in Germany.

Thales will also supply two new Tiger CPT simulators to train aircrews for France’s 1^st combat helicopter regiment in Phalsbourg.

The upgrade and addition of new functionality for simulation of weapon systems, communications, datalinks, sensors (including the visual display of the TopOwl helmet-mounted sight and display system) and flight modelling will bring these training facilities into line with the latest versions of France's Tiger HAD¹ combat support variant and Germany's UHT² anti-tank / fire support variant.

The new simulators will incorporate the latest version of Thales’s Computer Generated Force software and the ThalesView image generator and database to provide an even more realistic tactical environment for aircrew training and allow forces to tailor their databases to deployment scenarios in actual theatres of operations.

The contract also includes support for these simulators for 10 years.