Air Power 2017

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

WEBSITEwww.cae.com

Marc-Olivier Sabourin
Vice President and General Manager,
Europe/Africa, CAE

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A
‘21ST-CENTURY PARTNERSHIP’
BETWEEN CAE, ITS SUPPLIERS
AND ITS CUSTOMERS?
A 21st-century partnership is defined by
enduring characteristics, such as being
trusted, valued, effective, efficient and, of
course, safe. As we celebrate our 70-year
anniversary, these haven’t changed since
CAE was founded in 1947. What does
change, though, are the innovations we
bring to market to provide better training
solutions. CAE focuses our strategy
on being a training systems integrator
(TSI). When we say that, we are really
talking about developing a higher-level
partnership with governments and
militaries to look at their training enterprise
holistically. It also means that we will put
together training solutions that meet the
customer needs using the ‘best of breed’
components that are available to us –
irrespective of whether they are from CAE

or one of our industry partners. What is

critical to CAE is that we are accountable

for the training outcomes and our role

in supporting the safety, efficiency and

readiness of our military customers.

HOW WOULD THESE

PARTNERSHIPS BENEFIT THE UK

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOD)?

The benefits primarily are to the MOD’s

ability to force generate using the most

efficient and cost-effective training

solutions. For example, at RAF Benson,

CAE’s Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew

Training Facility (MSHATF) has been

constantly updated ever since this private

finance initiative (PFI) contract was let in

1997. Our training technologies and that
      of our partners has been refreshed
      throughout to improve constantly the
      training delivery and ultimately the
      preparation of the aircrews. And alongside
      technology, things have changed
      commercially and our innovation continues
      into our contractual arrangements. CAE
      is a company willing to invest and take
      a financial approach that relies on long-
      term partnership with our customers.
      So, the MOD gains all the benefits
      of a service contract but retains the
      agility to adjust to a changing front-line
      need and a partner that is very much
      incentivised on their performance.

AS A WORLDWIDE OPERATING

DEFENCE-TRAINING

ENTERPRISE, HOW CAN CAE

HELP ITS CUSTOMERS TO

ENHANCE PARTNERSHIPS

BETWEEN COUNTRIES?

Collaborating on training has long been

a pillar of international defence relations,

but it is sometimes difficult to achieve.

CAE is a strong proponent of helping our

defence customers train as a joint and

coalition force, and we have numerous

examples of this. For instance, at the

NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC)

programme as well as our MSHATF at

RAF Benson, different nations often

train in a collaborative enterprise that

shares training assets and addresses the

immediate training need in a cost-effective

way. But, they also bring the intangible

benefits through the relationships

they are built upon – a classic ‘win-win’

situation. In the live-flying environment,

for nations with small numbers of

trainees, it also makes complete sense

simply because of affordability. And in

the future, this model can be as relevant

for remotely piloted aircraft systems

(RPAS) as it is for manned platforms, and

distributed virtual training will become

more commonplace among coalition

partners. CAE’s role as a TSI positions us

perfectly to be the training partner of

choice to our government customers.

HOW DO THESE RELATIONSHIPS

HELP CAE TO IMPROVE ITS

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES?

As a major global company involved in

training more than 120,000 crew members

annually across the civil and defence

sectors, we are in a great position to

exploit our data and information to

enhance our training solutions. The

training environment has embraced

digital media for some years, but we are

now truly entering the era of digitisation

where we can use ‘big data’ to provide

objective and adaptive training solutions.

This is exactly what we are doing at

CAE’s new Dothan Training Centre for

the United States Army, where we will

graduate more than 600 fixed-wing

‘Generation Z’ aviators every year.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO

DEVELOPING TRAINING SYSTEMS