TTS - training and trainers
Sydney-based Thales Training & Simulation is carving out a niche in the support sector; it recognised the defence industry skilling problem some time back and has been working on it for nearly four years.
With the Australian market for new-build flight and platform simulators necessarily limited, Thales Training & Simulation has grown into the simulator and training support market to sustain itself and its customers between major acquisitions.
The company is Australia's largest supplier of defence and civil simulators. What is less well known is that it also provides operational maintenance and support to more simulators in Australia than any other organisation.
Through the platform prime contractors, or direct to the customer, TTS currently provides support to the simulators for the F-111C (RAAF Amberley), AP-3C (RAAF Edinburgh), A330/B767/B747/B737 (Qantas Sydney and Melbourne), B717/B737/A320 (Alteon/Virgin Blue Brisbane), Collins-class submarines (HMAS Stirling), the Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft (RAAF Williamtown). TTS simulators due to enter service shortly include those for the Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (Oakey and Darwin) and ASLAV (Puckapunyal, Brisbane and Darwin).
Also, Thales is the only organisation providing total turn key simulator development support and training in the fast jet domain. It delivers this service at Amberley for the F-111C, whose flight simulator it manufactured and recently upgraded and for which it also provides aircrew instruction, employing Qualified Flying Instructors who are F-111C qualified pilots and navigators.
Thales has also identified a long-term requirement to grow and sustain a cadre of simulator technician and engineers who are able to install new training devices and support in-service systems.
In order to grow that workforce Thales has instigated a four year Simulator Technician course in collaboration with Aviation Australia and the Queensland and South Australian TAFE bodies. Thales will graduate the first batch of trainees this year.
The need isn't just local: skills such as these are in short supply across the region and TTS's Australian staff also support training devices as far away as Malaysia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan. This provides a welcome export revenue stream as well as a base load of work to sustain the skilled workforce needed to support its Australian airline and defence customers.
One of the advantages of being part of a global company, sources say, is that TTS has an active exchange program with its European affiliates. A dozen software and systems engineers, technicians, program managers and ILS Engineers are currently on long term assignments in both the UK and France. This ensures that on projects like Wedgetail and Air 87 technology and know how will be transferred to Australia in order that TTS can maintain and upgrade the devices locally.
These Australian TTS staff are being exposed to the latest technology trends that are shaping the simulator market such us the advances that Thales is making in Hybrid Electric Motion systems and advanced display technology. These technological advances have been crucial to Thales' success on such recent programs as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner where it has been selected by Boeing to provide an initial suite of 6 Full Flight Simulators
In Australia, Thales staff have developed the depth of engineering and program management expertise which enables them to support their Prime Contractor customers with the intellectual, engineering and management resources of an Authorised Engineering Organisation. Thales provides this support currently to Boeing (F-111C and Wedgetail) and Australian Aerospace (Tiger).
Fundamental to TTS' ability to support its customer is its policy of employing operational domain experts. Thales currently employs current or past pilots and navigators with experience on the F-111C, AP-3C Orion, C-130 Hercules, Caribou, and Blackhawk along with former ASLAV Gunnery experts. Thales also employs simulator accreditation experts with previous experience in European accreditation agencies such as the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
As always in a high-technology domain, recruiting or training and then retaining the right people is critical. While manufacturing and customer support are quite different activities, the bottom line is the same: the higher the levels of technology involved, the more customer satisfaction depends on the inputs of trained, experienced people.
Thales Training & Simulation believes this investment in a sustainable industry base will also strengthen its bids for two major ADF simulator projects which are coming up in the near future: for the Army's MRH90 Additional Trooplift Helicopter and the RAAF's A330-200 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). The MRH simulator will be selected by Defence, while the MRTT simulator will be selected by the prime contractor TTS is competing against CAE to supply the training devices for these aircraft and is trying to make it as easy as possible for Defence to select them and consolidate Thales' position in this sector of the Australian market.
By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide