German Navy receives upgraded Sea King MK41 helicopter simulator

The German Navy has received its upgraded Sea King MK41 helicopter simulator ahead of schedule, CAE – the company in charge of the modernization – announced on May 16.

The simulator has re-entered service at the Nordholz Naval Airbase in Germany.

Previously, Sea King training was conducted on a basic instrument flight rules (IFR) training device originally built by CAE in the mid-1970s.

As part of the major upgrade to a full-mission simulator over the past 12 months, CAE performed a range of significant updates, including the addition of the latest-generation CAE Medallion-6000 image generator with Common Database (CDB) architecture, upgraded avionics for concurrency with the current helicopter, enhanced synthetic and tactical environment simulation software, new vibration system, an improved instructor operator station, and a new brief/debrief station.

The CDB architecture, which was recently adopted by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as an international standard for the creation of synthetic environment databases, will further enhance the ability to perform networked, interoperable mission training across the German Armed Forces.

“For almost 40 years the Sea King training device has provided valuable training, and now with the updates the Sea King full-mission simulator will continue to deliver critical training that enhances the readiness of the German Navy’s Sea King aircrews,” said Marc-Olivier Sabourin, CAE’s vice president and general manager, Europe/Africa.

“With the operational requirements placed on the German Navy’s Sea King helicopter fleet, they needed to increase the use of synthetic training and the upgraded simulator enables the German Navy to conduct more training in the full-mission simulator.”