CAE’s Annual Pre-ITEC Journo Sojourn

MS&T correspondent Walter Ullrich tests some ofCAE’s new technologies.

MS&T correspondent Walter Ullrich tests some of CAE's new technologies. Image credit: CAE

It's almost a tradition: on the weekend before the ITEC conference, CAEDefence & Security invites specialist journalists to inform about the stateof affairs at the company, far from the hustle and bustle of the trade fair.This year, the group met in Stolberg, CAE’s main base in Germany.

Marc-OlivierSabourin, CAE’s Vice President and General Manager, Europe/Africa, referred tothe successful fiscal year 2018, which saw CAE further increasing itsperformance with revenues of 2.8 billion Canadian dollars (CAD).

Thefuture is bright as well. CAE's current Airline Pilot Demand Outlook identifiesa global requirement for 300,000 new pilots over the next 10 years to sustainand grow the commercial air transport. In addition, many militaries are facingchallenges to man the new generation of aircraft. All this will lead to anincreasing demand for simulation-based training services and products, somethingthat CAE can do very well in both the civil and the military domains.

NielsKröning, General Manager, CAE Elektronik Deutschland, who has been in thisnewly created position since November 2018, presented CAE’s German subsidiary. CAEElektronik Deutschland was founded in 1961 to support the Starfighter flightsimulators operated by the European NATO member states. As such, the Canadiancompany is one of the longest operating overseas flight simulation systemproviders in Germany. CAE Stolberg as well is visibly in the upwind. Thepremises are being renovated and expanded; the 500-person company urgentlyneeds to hire more qualified personnel.

CAEStolberg is the training partner of the Bundeswehr, and a member of the consortiafor the development of training devices. The company is involved in five majorprojects:

Newworkload is looming, CAE considers all conditions met that the Germangovernment will choose the Boeing H-47 Chinook helicopter as its futureheavy-duty helicopter. In that case, CAE would be responsible for thedevelopment and support of a range of training systems and services under ateaming agreement with Boeing.

Theextended service life of the Tornado aircraft has already been confirmed –until 2030 or even 2035. Considering the general trend that simulator solutionsare the preferred choice for flight training because of their undeniable costadvantages, Kröning has every reason to look ahead with confidence.

Particularlyinteresting was the outlook given by Phil Perey, CAE Head of Technology. Heconfirmed that CAE and government partners will invest one billion CAD over thenext five years to innovate aviation training platforms. This includes primaryfunding for the initiative “CAE Project Digital Intelligence”, a digitaltransformation venture to develop next-generation training solutions foraviation, defence and security and healthcare. For CAE, this means leveraging emergingtechnologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and augmented realityinto the training experience.

An applicationdoing just that is CAE Rise (Real-time Insights and StandardizedEvaluations), developed for both airline and military customers. Based on atremendous amount of data, RISE objectively assesses pilot competencies inreal-time and provides insightful training analytics. The tool enables trainingtailored to the individual, and provides data-driven feedback to theorganization for continuous improvement of training plans.

CAE tactical combat casualty care demonstration. Image credit: CAE

There were other interesting presentations during the factory tour; for example, an impressive outdoor demonstration of combat casualty care, which CAE is providing to the German Special Forces. - Walter F. Ullrich for MS&T