Canadian Coast Guard awards $17M helicopter flight simulator contract to CAE
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Montreal firm will build the simulator as part of feds' Fleet Renewal Plan
MONTREAL—The government of Canada has awarded Montreal’s CAE Inc. a $17 million contract to build a full-flight simulator for the Canadian Coast Guard’s new light-lift and medium-lift helicopters.
The contract is part of the Coast Guard’s Fleet Renewal Plan, and is expected to create 85 jobs over the two years of design and construction.
“The helicopter simulator is just one of many steps we are taking to renew the Canadian Coast Guard fleet of helicopters,” Hunter Tootoo, Canada’s minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, said. “This twenty-first century technology will provide better training for our pilots at less cost while also generating jobs. Our government wants to ensure the men and women of the Coast Guard have the right tools to do their jobs.”
The Canadian government said the simulator will improve the overall safety of the Coast Guard’s pilots and aircraft while reducing helicopter flight hour requirements, which will save on training costs.
As CAE begins work on the simulator, government workers are expanding the Transport Canada hangar at Ottawa International airport to accommodate the new simulator once it is completed.
