Royal Air Force. 208(R) Squadron

A £1.1 billion contract has been placed with Ascent Flight Training to design, deliver and manage the Fixed Wing training service until 2033 and is expected to provide roughly 200 jobs across the UK, particularly at the key training bases.
The new Fixed Wing flying training system will provide modern training aircraft as well as up-to-date ground based training devices such as simulators and classroom learning for aircrew across the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and Army Air Corps.

Minister of State for Defence Procurement Philip Dunne said: This is fantastic news for the future of our military aircrew, providing them with a modern training system which will equip them to deliver on the front line. As part of this investment, a contract worth approximately £500 million has been signed with Affinity who will provide the aircraft that will be used at different stages of the training. Affinity, which is a joint venture between Kellogg Brown and Root Ltd and Elbit Systems UK, will provide three aircraft types as well as their maintenance and support. Contracts have also been awarded to Lockheed Martin and Babcock who have been selected to deliver all of the ground based training equipment and infrastructure to support the delivery of the fixed wing training capability.

With our strong commitment to air power as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review and our investment of £178 billion in equipment over the next 10 years, this contract is further proof of our commitment to invest in the UK’s defence capabilities for the future, ensuring that we continue to be a world leader in military flying training. The contract, which will cover provision of Elementary Flying Training, Basic Flying Training and Multi-Engine Pilot Training, will deliver through a single prime contractor, ensuring coherent delivery of the training system. Multi-Engine Pilot Training will be in place from mid-2018 and Basic Flying Training element up and running by early 2019. Ascent, selected as the MOD’s flying training partner in 2008, will be required to deliver the instruction, infrastructure and support required to provide flying training across the three Armed Services until 2033.