France looks set to become the second customer for Pilatus PC-7 MkX training aircraft after contracting with Babcock for a new flight training system.
Babcock will provide 22 aircraft and 12 Exail-made simulators under the 17-year, €795 million ($814.6 million) Mentor 2 contract that will train student pilots for both the French Air and Space Force and the French Navy.
The program aims to modernize and rationalize the elementary flight training phase by replacing the Grob G120As flown at Cognac and the Cirrus SR20 aircraft flown from Salon-de-Provence with a single aircraft type operated from a sole site at Salon-de-Provence. The initiative also aims to increase the role of simulation in elementary training. The program is expected to provide 11,000 flight hours and 6,500 simulator hours to 120 students per year.
Babcock is already contracted for training services to the French Air and Space Force, providing 26 Pilatus PC-21s for advanced training at Cognac.
“This new long-term contract underpins our strong relationship with the French Air and Space Force and places us as its main capability support partner in fighter pilot training programs,” said Pierre Basquin, Babcock’s chief executive of aviation and CEO France.
As well as the provision of aircraft and simulators, this contract will include the through-life support of the aircraft, infrastructure and pilot equipment.
The contract comes just weeks after Babcock announced it had purchased a fleet of L-39s from Apache Aviation to grow European military pilot training capacity.
The Netherlands is expected to be the launch customer for the PC-7 MkX to replace an existing fleet of PC-7s used by its Elementary Military Pilot Training school at Woensdrecht.
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