L‑3 Link Simulation & Training Joins BAE Systems Hawk AJTS Team to Pursue U.S. Air Force T‑X Contract

Arling­ton, Vir­ginia — BAE Sys­tems, Inc. and L‑3 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (NYSE: LLL) today announced that L‑3 Link Sim­u­la­tion & Train­ing, a divi­sion of L‑3 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, is join­ing the Hawk Advanced Jet Train­ing Sys­tem (AJTS) team as an exclu­sive part­ner to com­pete for the U.S. Air Force’s T‑X pro­gram. As a prin­ci­pal sup­pli­er to BAE Sys­tems, Inc., L‑3 Link will lead the design and inte­gra­tion of the Hawk AJTS Ground Based Train­ing Sys­tem (GBTS) for the Unit­ed States Air Force. 

The team plans to offer the Hawk AJTS as the replace­ment of the ven­er­a­ble, but aging, T‑38 train­er. The Hawk AJTS will be unique­ly tai­lored to meet the needs of the U.S. Air Force, man­u­fac­tured in the Unit­ed States, with the involve­ment of a strong U.S. sup­ply chain. 

“L‑3 Link’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in work­ing with the U.S. Air Force, cou­pled with the company’s train­ing and sim­u­la­tion exper­tise, makes it the per­fect choice to lead the work on our Ground Based Train­ing Sys­tem. L‑3 Link fur­ther under­pins the strength of the Hawk AJTS team in this pro­cure­ment,” said Robert Wood, Vice Pres­i­dent and lead for BAE Sys­tems’ Hawk Advanced Jet Train­ing Sys­tem Team. “We firm­ly believe that L‑3 Link will help deliv­er an enhanced train­ing expe­ri­ence for AETC pilots as a key mem­ber of our team.” 

“Our team is well-posi­tioned to devel­op a next gen­er­a­tion Ground Based Train­ing Sys­tem that strong­ly com­ple­ments BAE Sys­tems’ over­all Hawk AJTS solu­tion,” said Leonard Gen­na, pres­i­dent of L‑3 Link. “We will apply the expe­ri­ence we have gained as the world leader in fight­er sim­u­la­tion to devel­op a T‑X Ground Based Train­ing Sys­tem that enables the U.S. Air Force to reduce costs and cre­ate train­ing effi­cien­cies by enhanc­ing key train­ing tasks across the spec­trum, from the air­craft to advanced sim­u­la­tion and train­ing systems.” 

L‑3 Link is the world leader in the num­ber of mil­i­tary flight sim­u­la­tion sys­tems that remain active­ly in ser­vice today. This includes being the world’s lead­ing sup­pli­er of advanced F‑22, F/A‑18 and F‑16 sim­u­la­tor sys­tems, which employ tech­nolo­gies today that are direct­ly applic­a­ble to the T‑X pro­gram. Link’s total train­ing sys­tems exper­tise encom­pass­es a num­ber of pro­grams and is built on a foun­da­tion of strong pro­gram man­age­ment, com­pre­hen­sive instruc­tion­al sys­tems devel­op­ment, inno­v­a­tive train­ing devices, expert instruc­tion and con­cur­ren­cy man­age­ment between the train­ing sys­tem and aircraft. 

L‑3 Link Sim­u­la­tion & Train­ing joins BAE Sys­tems, Inc. and Northrop Grum­man as the lat­est mem­ber of the Hawk AJTS team. In Sep­tem­ber 2011, BAE Sys­tems and Northrop Grum­man announced an exclu­sive strate­gic part­ner­ship to com­pete in the USAF T‑X pro­gram. Northrop Grum­man will serve as the man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ner. Northrop Grum­man is the orig­i­nal man­u­fac­tur­er of the T‑38. The Hawk AJTS effec­tive­ly inte­grates live and syn­thet­ic air and ground based ele­ments to suc­cess­ful­ly train pilots for 5th gen­er­a­tion fight­ers such as the F‑35 Light­ning II and the F‑22 Rap­tor. It is the world’s only ful­ly-inte­grat­ed off-the-shelf sys­tem in ser­vice today, ready now to train U.S. Air Force com­bat pilots. More than just an air­craft, the Hawk AJTS teach­es stu­dent pilots how to address the crit­i­cal flow of infor­ma­tion, learn to inter­pret it cor­rect­ly and make the right deci­sions to main­tain oper­a­tional advantage.

This proven, low-cost, low-risk 5th gen­er­a­tion train­ing sys­tem con­sists of three crit­i­cal com­po­nents to pro­vide cost-effec­tive train­ing to pre­pare fight­er and bomber pilots: 

• A flex­i­ble, adapt­able Enter­prise Learn­ing Archi­tec­ture (ELA);
• A Ground Based Train­ing Sys­tem (GBTS) that deliv­ers the right skills through a blend­ed live/virtual envi­ron­ment; and
• A proven air­craft that can adapt, evolve and deliv­er the live ele­ment of train­ing to meet end-user require­ments by cost-effec­tive­ly emu­lat­ing front line plat­forms with no new main­te­nance skills.

Almost 1,000 Hawk air­craft have been sold across the world, help­ing pro­duce high­ly trained pilots for 25 coun­tries, for newest gen­er­a­tion air­craft such as Typhoon, F‑35 Light­ning II, and Gripen. The Hawk is the future lead-in train­er for the F‑35 for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, the UK, Cana­da, and Aus­tralia. The Hawk air­craft has active pro­duc­tion lines around the world. USAF Hawks will be built in the Unit­ed States. 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Lisa Hillary-Tee, BAE Sys­tems, Inc.
Mobile: +1 571 296 8237
Twit­ter: Lisaht
lisa.hillary-tee@baesystems.com

Rick Oyler, L‑3 Link Sim­u­la­tion & Train­ing
Mobile: +1 817 829 2814
Richard.Oyler@L‑3com.com

www.baesystems.com/HawkforUSAF

Source:
BAE Systems 

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