The Italian Air Force Predator Mission Trainer. (CAE)
A CAE-built Predator Mission Trainer entered service with the Italian Air Force on February 5.
Installed at Amendola Air Base in Italy, the Predator Mission Trainer (PMT) is the highest fidelity simulator ever developed and fielded for the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) Predator family of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) systems.
“The incredible realism of the Predator Mission Trainer gives us a critical training capability to efficiently produce the highly skilled Predator crews we need to conduct a range of operational missions,” an Italian Air Staff representative said in a statement.
“Having the world’s highest fidelity Predator Mission Trainer as part of our unmanned systems centre of excellence in Italy gives us unmatched training flexibility and the ability to leverage simulation-based virtual training throughout our curriculum.”
Group President Defence & Security CAE, Gene Colabatistto added, “The development of the Predator Mission Trainer for the Italian Air Force represents a new level of fidelity and capability in the use of simulation-based training for remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators.
“We believe this Predator Mission Trainer is the first Level D equivalent simulator for an unmanned aircraft.”
The Italian milestone follows the award to CAE by GA-ASI to develop a synthetic training system for the UK’s Protector RG Mk1 remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) program, a UK-specific variant of GA-ASI’s certifiable MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPAS.
CAE will design and develop a comprehensive synthetic training system that will include desktop and high-fidelity mission trainers specific for the Protector. The company says the high-fidelity Protector mission trainers will be based on GA-ASI’s certifiable ground control station (CGCS), and will be the first simulators developed for this advanced CGCS.
CAE is a key member of the Team Reaper Australian consortium which was down-selected last November to provide a to-be-selected variant of the MQ-9 family to the RAAF under Project AIR 7003.