Air Power 2017

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

WEBSITE babcockinternational.com

Neal Misell
Managing Director of UK Military Air,
Babcock International

WHAT ARE BABCOCK’S
CORE CAPABILITIES IN THE
AIR DOMAIN?
Babcock’s Aviation Sector is an aviation
company that supports both our own
and our customers’ aircraft fleets and
airbases; we are not a support services
company that happens to find itself in
aviation. At a revenue of £0.9 billion, we
are the biggest aviation engineering
support business in the UK.
We have just completed a strategic
realignment based around our four core
sectors – Marine, Land, Nuclear and Aviation

• to make us more focused on our core
  offers and customers. We deliver a wide
  array of critical engineering and training
  services to defence and civil customers,
  ranging from technical training of advanced
  fixed- and rotary-wing pilots through our
  UK joint venture, Ascent, to air ambulance,
  oil and gas support, fire and rescue and
  police aviation. We support our own fleet
  of more than 500 aircraft, plus over 200
  customer-owned platforms flying over
  238,000 flying hours per year. For the UK
  Ministry of Defence (MOD), we support

over 70% of all RAF flying training hours.

In total, we employ over 2,000 pilots in

both civil and military roles.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE

PARTNERSHIPS TO BABCOCK

INTERNATIONAL AND WHY?

Our partnerships within military aviation

stretch back to 1915, when we were one

of the early sponsors of the Flying Services

Fund for the Royal Naval Air Service and

the Royal Flying Corps. We are committed

to the Whole-Force approach and we have

embraced the opportunities to challenge

and be challenged by our customers.

partnership not only with the oil and gas

majors, but with the passengers carried

across the most inhospitable oceans.

WHAT IS BABCOCK’S

INVOLVEMENT IN UK

FLYING TRAINING?

We have been delivering flying training,

aircraft engineering and airfield services

for more than 70 years and we support

over 25% of all MOD rotary- and fixed-

wing aircraft. Babcock is a 50/50 partner

in the Ascent joint venture with Lockheed

Martin, which is responsible for delivering

the UK Military Flying Training System

(UKMFTS) through to 2033. Our key

activities include the delivery of pilot

training, flight simulator maintenance,

asset management, multi-activity support

services and equipment support to

ensure that aircraft and their aircrew are

always mission-ready. We employ around

1,800 highly trained and skilled people

at over 30 aviation sites across the UK.

HOW DOES THE FRENCH

FLYING TRAINING CONTRACT

COMPARE WITH MFTS?

We are absolutely delighted to have

been chosen by the French Ministère

de la Défense for FOMEDEC (Formation

modernisée et entraînement différencié

des équipages de chasse) which is a

10-year outsourced programme to deliver

Basic Flying Training in the Pilatus PC-21

to the l’Armée de l’Air. Like UKMFTS,

the French contract authorities have

purchased a fixed amount of flying hours

with a maintenance, infrastructure and

a synthetic training solution to deliver a

pilot training capability. We are excited

to be starting this new contract and see

further international opportunity for

our compelling range of capabilities.

EMBRACING OPPORTUNITIES

AND CHALLENGES

“We support

over 25% of all

MOD rotary-

and fixed-

wing aircraft”

We also have strong partnerships with

OEMs, such as Dassault in France, Lockheed

Martin within Ascent, BAE Systems for the

Hawk, Rolls-Royce for the Adour engine

maintenance programme and as a partner

for the Voyager tanker aircraft. These are all

testament to our ability to collaborate and

partner, which is vital in the aviation sector.

Our relationships with the diverse

communities involved in emergency

services aviation, especially air ambulances,

further show how very high-readiness

aviation can only succeed within a

partnership. Moreover, the challenges

of operating an air service to remote

offshore oil platforms requires a

CONTAC T [email protected]