The French subsidiary of Babcock, the British provider of defense services, confirmed its selecion to provide future fast jet pilot and navigator training aircraft for the French air force under a service contract lasting 11 years. Babcock Mission Critical Services France (BMCSF) is buying 17 Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers and forming a joint company with Dassault. Simulation specialist CAE will provide ground training devices under a subcontract. The new requirement is known by the French acronym FOMEDEC, meaning the modernized and differentiated training of fighter aircraft crews.
“We are delighted that our French company will be working as a key support partner on this major French defense contract,” said Archie Bethel, chief executive of Babcock International Group. “The project will draw on our expertise in the European aviation industry and our experience of delivering long-term military flight training programs,” he continued. In the UK, Babcock is in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin named Ascent, which provides the entire UK Military Flying Training System (MFTS). But unlike MFTS, wher Ascent also provides most of the instructor pilots (IPs), the French Air Force will continue to provide these in FOMEDEC. The contract calls for between 11,000 and 13,500 annual flying hours, training 50 aircrews.

In France, BMCSF is already providing a fleet of EC120 helicopters to train French army pilots at Dax, in a joint venture named HeliDax with Airco, the air training division of Defense Conseil International (DCI), the part-French government-owned training provider. BMCSF bought into HeliDax in 2014 when it acquired the 50-percent stake that was previously held by helicopter operator Avantis Aviation.

The new PC-21 aircraft and simulators will be based at Cognac, wher they will replac the Grob G120A and Socata TB 30 Epsilon piston-powered trainers. They have been provided under contract by the French subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space, which was the main competitor to Babcock for the FOMEDEC contract, in a joint bid with Thales that also proposed using PC-21s. Other bidders are believed to have included Aero Vodochody, Alenia Aermacchi and DCI.

The high performance of the PC-21 will also allow it to also replac that part of the current fast jet training syllabus that is flown on Alpha Jets based at Tours. But pilots will continue to fly advanced and weapons training courses at Cognac on the veteran Dassault/Dornier jet trainer, some of which will be upgraded by Dassault.

“I am delighted we have finally won another European air force for our PC-21,” said Pilatus chairman Oscar Schwenk. “An exceptionally rigorous selection process based on the strictest of criteria provides further proof that the PC-21 is the first choice worldwide for training military pilots. France is the eighth air force to choose the PC-21; we will soon have a total of 209 PC-21s flying successfully fro bases around the world. I'm confident that other European air forces will follow France's example.”

A Dassault spokesman told AIN that the PC-21s will have some functionality that replicates the cockpit of the Rafale fighter. He said his company’s role in the partnership with Babcock would be fully explained in a few weeks’ time.