Air Power 2017

98 AIR POWER 2017

21 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIES

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

to 2019. When complete, the MOD and Ascent will
have delivered 23 Grob 120TP basic training aircraft, 10
T-6C Texan II basic trainers, 28 Hawk T2 advanced jet
trainers, 29 Juno basic helicopter trainers, three Jupiter
advanced mountain and maritime training helicopters,
five Phenom 100 multi-crew training aircraft and an
array of supporting synthetics (simulators, emulators

• in the air and on the ground – and world-class
  debriefing tools). The Royal Navy’s observer training
  unit, 750 NAS, will continue to operate from Royal Navy
  Air Station Culdrose, with MFTS operating from RAF
  Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, Valley and Shawbury.
  MFTS will enable a substantial reduction in aeroplanes,
  infrastructure, people and running costs and will free
  up more personnel to the front line. Systemic changes,
  glass cockpits, reliability of aircraft and the ‘Phase 0’
  flight training have already allowed the syllabi to fast-
  forward past obsolete objectives to earlier streaming.

SKILL-SET EVOLUTION
In addition, the graduating standard at Valley already
outstrips what was expected of second tourists in the
1980s. Basic techniques at Shawbury (such as night
vision goggles) were elite skills in the 1990s, and we
have primed the US Air Force Reaper training system
with some of their highest-performing students

since the 2000s. But much more ‘down-load’ from

more expensive front-line aircraft, ‘cross-load’ to

synthetic devices and ‘off-load’ to contractor delivery

will be possible as we begin to exploit the potential

of the new system. Forecast benefits thus far point

towards a reduction from 189 aircraft to 98; a 35%

increase in synthetic training across the enterprise;

a net reduction of some 7,500-flying hours; some 53

fewer military instructors in the training system (three

front-line combat squadrons worth); the reduction of

at least one operating base; plus compression from

36 to 28 months for fast-jet pilot training and 19 to

14 months for those in the multi-engine streams.

LESSONS BEING LEARNT

However, the experience of introducing the Hawk

T2 into 4 FTS (Flying Training School) was challenging

and led to many lessons learnt, all of which have

been assimilated. The introduction of five new aircraft

types in the next 24 months, a range of new simulators,

comprehensively changed syllabi, new training

buildings, refurbished runways, the maintenance of

the legacy system and transitioning instructors will

bring many challenges – some foreseen and many

others still under cover. This sits alongside turbulence

outside our control in the civil and commercial

MFTS will introduce

three new fixed-wing

trainer aircraft: the

Grob 120TP, the

T-6C Texan (pictured)

and the Embraer

Phenom 100

(PHOTO: BEECHCRAFT)