Boeing and the Air Force on Sept. 30 held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 48th Fighter Wing’s new F-15E mission training center at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, Britain. The MTC, which has two simulators for cockpits and two for weapon system officers, provides F-15E aircrews with high-fidelity, simulator-based training. “It is a highly realistic training system that allows pilots to sharpen their skills without putting themselves in harm’s way or adding wear and tear to their aircraft,” Kay Grabanski, Boeing’s F-15E MTC program manager, said in a company release. The center actually began operations in April, but the ribbon-cutting ceremony didn’t take place until this past Tuesday. Thus far, the center has supported about 350 training missions while maintaining a 100 percent availability rate, the company said. Next year, it will join the Air Force’s distributed mission operations training network, which allows aircrews spread across the globe to link together so they can participate in the same training exercises. Boeing said it has already delivered two F-15E MTCs to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, and Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C. (Includes Lakenheath report by SSgt. Nathan Gallahan)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design the Air Force said.