Following various announcements some months back now, there seems to be a dearth of any further information on what the future UK MFTS Fixed Wing model will look like.
Ascent appointed Affinity who are seemingly to provide the Airframe Assets … But that seems to be the limit of joint MOD and Contractor comms for the moment.
So how is it all going to work ? Clearly the Aircrew Training pipeline isn’t going to be anything like the scale seen during the 60’s, 70’s or even the 80’s … but presumably it will need to be a continuous operation with some capacity to ‘flex’ when required, for example when the F-35 enters service.
By my reckoning we currently have about x100 Grob G115 Tutor T1’s, x35 Shorts Tucano T1’s and x8 Beechcraft King Air 200’s through a mix of ownership. I’m assuming the Tucano and King Air fleets will go completely … but what of the Tutor fleet ? I would have thought it unlikely that the proposed new ‘Elementary Trainer’, in the form of the Grob G120TP, would be suitable/economic for UAS and/or Air Cadet AEF use.
Looking at the new Training Assets … presumably airframe acquisition will be as near as possible to ‘off the shelf’ spec/cost (but no corporate leather trim for the Phenom 100 then
). I guess the Grob G120TP will come with the ‘optional’ LW Ejector Seat … but things have clearly moved on for an RAF Elementary Trainer to have a retractable undercarriage.
Image Credit : Grob : G120TP
Image Credit : Embraer : Phenom 100
Image Credit : Beechcraft : T-6C
So without, hopefully, getting bogged down in the merits/demerits of PFI models or venturing into the current commercial territory of the Ascent/Affinity deal … I thought it might be interesting to speculate on what we are likely to see at Barkston Heath, Cranwell and Valley when MFTS is finally up and running. I expect a few members might like to offer a few perspectives on the choice of aircraft (Cue Leon
) … the Ground School ‘systems’ element on the G120TP for Ab initio Bloggs could be a bit intense.
Best ...
Coff.
PS. Happy New Year to all