WARTON, England, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- BAE Systems is aiming to secure a contract to provide 25 years of flight training services to the British armed forces.
The company said it submitted its proposal for training services to Ascent Flight Training, which manages the British Ministry of Defense's Military Flying Training System program in response to the Fixed Wing Outline Solutions Request for Proposal.
Following a period of evaluation by Ascent, a further Detailed Solutions RFP is anticipated in March. Selection of an awardee is expected at the end of the year.
If successful BAE, leading a team that includes Gama Group Limited, Babcock Aerospace Limited and Pilatus Aircraft Limited, will be responsible for ensuring a range of aircraft and systems are available to train aircrew in basic, elementary and multi-engine, fixed-wing flying.
The aircraft offered under the BAE Systems proposal is an upgraded Grob 115 with a digital cockpit and the Pilatus PC21 with a Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer optimized cockpit to ease the transition of pilots onto the Hawk AJT.
For multi-engine training the Cessna Citation Mustang has been proposed.
"Our proposed solution builds upon the success of our existing Hawk availability contracts and, with the strong team we have in place, we can deliver fully supported elementary, basic and multi engine aircrew training for the U.K.'s armed forces for 25 years," said Martin Rushton, senior vice president for Training Solutions & Services at BAE Systems.
