As I understand it, the contract to run on King Air was expensive and it was cheaper and less risky to use a high-quality commercial training provider for multi-engine training. Especially the extra pilots needed now following the expansion of aircraft numbers under SDSR15. So a competitive was run and L3 won. The plan is to do EFT and then an enhanced lead in course doing more close formation and low level before going to the commercial school. Now seeing as L3 have Boeing and Airbus sims for MCC then the graduates of this program could actually be a better product for Voyager and P8 (and Wedgetail if we buy it). All announced here:
https://www.pilotcareernews.com/l3-t...or-raf-pilots/
L3 Commercial Aviation has been selected by the Royal Air Force (RAF) to support the training of future RAF multi-engine pilots in a three-year contract.
L3 will provide a bespoke training course for approximately 100 trainee pilots.
Trainees will undertake a course similar to a Commercial Pilot License (CPL) with Instrument Rating (IR) as well as the Multi-Crew Cooperation (MCC) course to supplement the RAF’s own training.
“This agreement showcases our ability to offer tailored, cost-effective solutions to meet existing and new customers’ bespoke training requirements. We look forward to working with the RAF for many years and welcoming their pilots to our U.K. training facilities,” said Robin Glover-Faure, President of Commercial Training Solutions, which is part of L3 Commercial Aviation.
Group Captain David Catlow, from the RAF Directorate of Flying Training, added, “This agreement with L3 will help us to deliver more world-class pilots to our operational front line in the timescales we require.”
The trainee pilots will start with Officer Training and Elementary Flying Training with the RAF, then carry out the tailored course on multi-engine aircraft before progressing to the MCC course using L3’s flight simulators. The first class of students will begin training with L3 in August 2018.
Oh, and I suspect it is a lot cheaper than running a small bespoke outfit of ex QFIs with some airframes at a MOD airfield as a top up to MEPT on UKMFTS as has been suggested above. Using the capacity in L3’s extant global training system is far better and likely much cheaper.
This course will run in parallel with current UKMFTS MEPT offering the extra numbers of pilots needed for the extra demand of SDSR15.