Lockheed Martin signs $18.8 million contract with Dutch Space and NLR for F-35's embedded training system

Today Lockheed Martin signed a 18.8 million US$ contract with Dutch Space and NLR for the development of a multi-ship, embedded training system for the F-35 Lightning II, known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Dutch Space and NLR, the National Aerospace Laboratory in the Netherlands, will execute the contract in an Integrated Project Team (IPT) which will lead to the initial implementation of embedded training in Block 3 aircraft in 2011. The embedded training system - providing multi-ship interaction, local and distributed weapons simulation, data link, data collection and off-board debriefing – is expected to become a standard feature in the F-35.

Tom Burbage, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin and General Manager of the F-35 Program: “Today I am here to celebrate the 90th anniversary of this great aerospace research institute, the NLR. It gives me great pleasure to also witness the signing of the contract for the embedded training system, adding a unique feature to the F-35 Weapon System. A system that proves how jointly NLR and Dutch Space have been successful in bringing their innovative ideas into advanced training reality. I have personally flown the Dutch F-16 Development aircraft, and I look forward to the day that this capability is installed in the F-35”.

The contract for the Dutch team is part of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the international JSF-program. Bart Reijnen, CEO of Dutch Space: “The embedded training contract is an important milestone for all involved and in line with the national government’s objective to involve Dutch innovation and industry in the development of the F-35 Lightning II. This is the starting point of a long term cooperation with Lockheed Martin which enables us to further build on the expertise in top notch training technology in the Netherlands for many years”.

Fred Abbink, CEO of NLR: “This success follows a decade of joint concept development, implementation and single-ship and multi-ship demonstrations. Now we look forward to continuing our work together with Dutch Space to design, implement, integrate and validate this highly innovative capability for the JSF”.

Near-real in-fight practice for real-time preparation.

Embedded training allows pilots to engage in simulated combat scenarios while flying actual aircraft. It enables realistic and effective in-flight training at a lower cost and reduced environmental impact. More complicated scenarios can now be performed anytime, anywhere, since there will be limited need for adversary aircraft and other training assets. The aircraft are connected via data link in order to synchronize the synthetic environment for all participating aircraft.

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