Flight simulation

Rheinmetall being n.1 in simulation and training in Germany and n.2 in Europe, second only to Thales, with over 2,000 simulators delivered worldwide including land, sea and air, the company has a complete portfolio of solutions, as underlined by Stefan Klaes, Senior Sales Manager Flight Simulation at Rheinmetall Defence Electronics in Bremen.

A major success has been the recent selection by Embraer of Brazil for providing the whole package of training for the new KC-390 tactical transport aircraft. Rheinmetall is already involved in numerous simulation programmes, such as flight crew training systems for the MiG 29, the EF 2000 Typhoon, and the NH-90 and Tiger helicopters, cargo hold and loadmaster training assets for the Airbus A400M Master, and other commercial and military programmes. The 20 ton payload twin-jet aircraft has already been selected by the Brazilian Air Force, which ordered 28 KC-390, while other five international customers, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, and Portugal, have filed overall 32 options, bringing the total to 60 aircraft.

Rheinmetall will provide initially one of each type of simulation assets, full flight simulator, cockpit procedure trainer and cargo hold station trainer. The full flight simulator will be fitted with a motion system, as civil authorities still require it. The Força Aérea Brasileira will set up a training facility at the KC-390 base, and left-over training time will certainly being proposed to the other KC-390 customers. That said, it is however possible that some of these nations acquire their own simulation system, Rheinmetall training devices being part of the Embraer KC-390 product catalogue.