Plane training

Boeing’s F-15E Mission Training Center (MTC) celebrated its opening this week at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Since April 2008, the centre has provided 350 training missions and maintained a 100 per cent availability rate for pilots who wish to engage in simulator-based training.

According to Boeing, the simulators reduce the fiscal and environmental costs of operational flights, whilst providing a high-fidelity training tool.

Kay Grabanski, F-15E MTC programme manager for Boeing, said: ‘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.’

The training centre includes two dual-cockpit F-15E simulators that boast a strong synthetic environment, a 360-degree visual system, as well as brief/debrief and instructor/operator stations provided by SAID.

The F-15E simulators are equipped with a head-tracked, area-of-interest display visual system and can operate individually or simultaneously in two- or four-ship training scenarios.

Introductory, operational and continuation training will be undertaken at MTC by all F-15E squadrons of the 48th Fighter Wing in the US Air Force.

Boeing has built two F-15E MTCs in Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina.