Six-Year Program Upgraded Sim Equipment
Boeing announced Monday its
Integrated Defense Systems Training Systems and Services
organization has completed a six-year US Army contract to retrofit
and upgrade 22 Apache Longbow Crew Trainers, 22 Maintenance
Training Devices and a Longbow Collective Training System.
"The Boeing team developed significant simulation solutions for
the Longbow attack helicopter," said Randy Nielson, contractor for
the Army's Apache Project Management Office. "There's a lot of
satisfaction in watching a needed capability evolve into a
functional, relevant product. It's a privilege to work with the
kind of people who make it happen."
Under the contract, hundreds of individual upgrades were
performed on the trainers to ensure concurrency with the Apache
Longbow helicopter. Boeing delivered and supported Longbow training
devices around the world, including Army posts throughout the
United States and in South Korea, Germany, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Boeing's work included several major retrofits and upgrades to
match the evolution of the Apache Longbow, allowing for improved
individual and collective crew training and mission rehearsal.
Database improvements included adding virtual visual systems for
South Korea, Iraq and Kosovo. These upgraded tactical environments
also include new modeling options: Light trucks, civilian vehicles
and improvised explosive devices have been added to the possible
scenarios.
"This is a very successful contract for Boeing and the customer.
We were able to keep up with a very dynamic configuration of
helicopters in the trainers and stayed as current as possible to
the configurations of the aircraft in the field," said Kathy
Bailey, Multi-Year II Apache Training Program project manager for
Boeing. "The Army had never done a training device retrofit program
of this magnitude, and we were able to work together to meet the
warfighters' needs."
The Army's Apache Project Management Office earlier this year
presented Bailey with its Cheyenne Award for her contributions to
the Unit Fielding and Training Program as well as to the Apache
Longbow community.
Next on the Apache training device schedule is the Extended
Block 2 bridge contract, which will resume the cycle of
retrofitting the existing trainers to match future Longbow
helicopter upgrades. The Block 3 redesign of the Apache Longbow is
expected to be fielded starting in 2011 and will bring significant
modifications to the aircraft as well as to the training
devices.