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military aircrew training for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Army
Air Corps (AAC) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It is executed under
control of the Directorate of Flight Training, No 22 Group RAF
and contract oversight is provided by the Defence Equipment
and Support (DE&S) organization.
Following initial training, the future aircrews enter the UK
MFTS for Elementary Flying Training. Once this phase is
completed with success, there is a split depending on the
future career of the student: Advanced Flying, Multi-Engine
or Rotary Wing. All three courses are also in scope of the
UK MFTS. Once these courses are completed with success
the Multi-Engine and Rotary Wing pilots proceed to an
operational conversion unit which is not part of the UK MFTS
anymore. The pilots who completed the Basic Flying course
with success will first undergo a Fast Jet training course
within the UK MFTS. Only once that is also completed, they
too will move on to an operational conversion unit. Finally,
the UK MFTS also has a so-called rear crew training course
for future Fleet Air Arm Wildcat and Merlin observers.
Most of the elements in scope are executed under so-called
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts. In other words, civil
partners are contracted to purchase, operate and maintain
the aircraft. Obviously, the training syllabus is established
in close cooperation with and under control of the military.
Furthermore, No 22 Group RAF provides airfields, fuel and
part of the instructors.
Not long after the turn of the century, preparations had
already started to outline the details for the overall PFI
contract. By 2004, four consortia were in the competition to
win the contract:
BAE Systems, Serco and Bombardier
Rolls-Royce, Lockheed Martin and VT Group
Boeing and Thales
Kellogg Brown & Root, EG&G and Lear Siegler
BAE Systems pulled out in April 2004 due to a conflict of
interest since this company was selected to supply Hawk
Mk.128 jets for the Fast Jet training course. The main
contract was awarded to Ascent Flight Training Ltd end-
2006. Nowadays, Ascent is a joint-venture of Babcock
International and Lockheed Martin. In essence this was the
second consortium mentioned in the list of four candidates.
VT Group was purchased by Babcock International in 2010.
Elementary and Basic Flying Training
VT Aerospace provided this service to the British military
using a fleet of Grob 115E (Tutor T1) aircraft. A reduced
number of these aircraft will continue to serve with the Air
Experience and University Air Squadron programs. But their
role as elementary training aircraft will cease in the near
future. The twenty-four surplus Grobs were sold to Finland
where they will be modified and taken on charge by the
Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force). Including attrition losses this
will leave ninety-five aircraft remaining in service.
To replace the Tutor T1, Ascent provided a sub-contract to
a joint venture between Elbit Systems and Kellogg, Brown
& Root (KBR) to supply twenty-three Grob 120TP-A aircraft.
These aircraft were named Prefect T1 by the British military.
The first pair of aircraft was delivered in November 2016. At
the time of writing only a single aircraft is yet to be delivered.
The Prefect T1 aircraft will operate from RAF Barkston Heath
and RAF Cranwell. They will be operated under 3FTS, and
about 250 students are planned to graduate training courses
each year. It is expected that 3FTS will also continue to use
Tutor T1 aircraft from RAF Cranwell and RAF Wittering
well into 2018. This will allow time to build up Prefect T1
operations to full capacity.
Advanced Flying Training
Currently, the RAF uses Tucano T1 aircraft assigned to 1FTS
at RAF Linton-on-Ouse for this purpose. These aircraft will be
withdrawn from use soon and the RAF station is slated to be
closed. The Elbit-KBR joint venture was also sub-contracted
by Ascent to provide ten T-6C Texan II aircraft to replace the
Tucano.
The first pair of Texan II aircraft was delivered mid-February
2018. Both aircraft were placed inside a hangar at RAF Valley
immediately after arrival. They will first be used for ground
crew training and are not expected to commence flight
operations until mid-2018. Initially the aircraft will be used
for flight instructor training and the first student course is
expected to commence early 2019. The entire fleet is planned
to use RAF Valley as their future base of operations. It is
currently not confirmed which RAF squadron will use these
new aircraft.
Advanced Fast Jet Flying Training
The older Hawk T1 aircraft in use for this task were replaced
by the more modern Hawk T2 version of this jet. British
Aerospace (BAE) is main sub-contractor. Initially a fleet of
up to fifty Hawk T2 jets was planned, but a contract for only
twenty-eight aircraft was eventually issued.
The first aircraft were delivered in 2008, but they were
used for air- and groundcrew familiarization only. The last
of the twenty-eight aircraft was delivered in 2011. The first
student training course took place in 2010. Initially they were
The police’s aviation force of Colombia, Area de Aviacion (ARAVI), is headquartered at Bogotà’s El Dorado airport. The helicopter fleet mainly
resides at Guaymaral where this Bell 407 PNC-0927 was seen. (31 March 2018, Ian French)
