SimTecT 2007: Meggitt ramps up

1 May 2007

By Gregor Ferguson

UK-based defence company Meggitt Defence Systems is positioning itself to win a greater slice of Australia's training and simulation market.

British aerospace company Meggitt PLC acquired US simulation specialist Fire Arms Training Systems Inc (FATS) in October last year and plans to build on FATS's established presence in Australia to expand into the ADF training and simulation market.

While relatively unknown in Australia, Meggitt has been building a solid portfolio of training products and expertise for maritime, land and air customers.

Some of this growth has been organic, some of it, such as the FATS purchase, by thoughtful acquisition of complementary specialists in the UK and USA. Some of its recent acquisitions include FATS and parts of the former Dunlop Aerospace.

Their most recent Keith Aerospace Products (need to check name on Meggitt website) expands their presence in wheels and brakes in the US market and positions Meggitt for programs like the JSF.

Last year Meggitt turned over 670 million pounds (about $1.6 billion), of which just over 14 per cent was directly defence-related; the company employs 5,600 people in some 30 countries, the majority of them in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

The company can now offer a full range of unmanned aerial targets for air-air and ground-air weapons; towed targets for air-air and surface-air training; static and moving targets for infantry and armoured troops, including moving targetry for urban warfare, or MOUT, ranges; maritime targets; specialist airborne pods for various training and other payloads; and, as a natural sideline of the towed target business, deployment and recovery systems for a wide range of towed decoys for tactical aircraft.

Meggitt Defense Systems' range of target drones is well-known: the Snipe and Banshee have been in UK service for some 20 years as reliable, well proven training targets for gun and missile operators. Meggitt Defense Systems has sold the Snipe system to 15 export customers and in some cases operates the targets for the customer.

The Snipe has a maximum speed of 200km/hr and a range of about 5km; the next generation Banshee target has been sold to 40 countries and uses either piston or jet propulsion to generate a maximum speed of 236 miles/hr and a GPS-assisted control range of about 60 miles.

The newest, piston-engined Voodoo has a 300kt maximum speed and maximum and minimum altitudes of 6,000 and 5 metres, respectively, to simulate the performance and flight profile of high performance aircraft.

Each of these drones is designed to tow aerial targets, including IR heat sources and the like, but even the Voodoo costs just $200,000, so is cheap enough to be engaged directly, if training or T&E obligations demand.

The aerial target business is at the core of Meggitt's training capabilities, but these span the entire spectrum from virtual to live and embrace scoring and range control systems also, according to the company's Vice President for business development, Richard Haddad.

He told ADM in Sydney the company sees considerable potential in the maritime and land systems markets: Meggitts Barracuda remote-controlled high speed boat is used to train the US and other navies' surface warships to deal with 'swarm' (FIAC) attacks by small craft.

A single control console can handle up to 16 separate Barracuda boats; these can also tow a range of different naval targets - heat sources, radar reflectors and the like - for conventional naval training. The new, low-cost Hammerhead was designed as an expendable target for live fire training against the FIAC threat.

In a similar vein, the company has developed the Badger, a vehicle designed to tow targets for armoured vehicles on live fire ranges. Not surprisingly, Badger is also armoured to ensure reliable re-use and gives trainers the flexibility to train on unimproved terrain, deployed with little or no range infrastructure

Meggitt Defence Systems' live-fire Caswell division manufactures the majority of the company's infantry and armour training target systems. All of its target mechanisms, targets and controls meet or exceed the threshold requirements of the US Army's Operational Requirements Document (ORD) for the Integrated - Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) Training System (I-MTS).

Additionally, Meggitt Caswell has designed all of its precision and non-precision target mechanisms to operate by either AC or battery power and through Ethernet or radio control. This allows deployment of precision, three-dimensional human targets inside and outside buildings plus nearby approach routes and in ambush settings, regardless of power or data outlets.

This 'untethered' approach is mirrored in the latest version of FATS, which employs a Bluetooth remote control and range measurement system called 'Blue Fire'. This frees simulators from the ball and chain of a hard-wired link to a PC on the instructor's desk.

The Australian Special Forces community has ordered Blue Fire for use with the M4 rifle, though the rest of the ADF is still using the hard-wired variant of FATS. This is in service at 15 sites across Australia, designated Weapons Training Simulation System, or WTSS.

Here in Australia, said Haddad, Meggitt is targeting a number of opportunities. It is engaging with the Joint Combined Training Centre project team where it is trying to address the perennial issue of how training providers and the industry more broadly link constructive virtual and live environments.

Longer-term, the JCTC and associated land force training requirements hold out prospects for the company. Meggitt is also studying the prospects for maritime training.

With Australian troops heavily engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside its US and UK allies, Haddad believes there is a potential market for other training devices such as Lockheed Martin's Convoy Trainer, for which Meggitt is the principal sub-contractor; and also for the Integrated Forward Air Controller Trainer (IFACT).

This is a computerised procedural and mission rehearsal system that keeps both pilot and FAC in the loop. It is designed to support the US military's Joint FAC (JFAC) program and 4 RAR acquired a single IFACT system quite recently to enhance its interoperability with US forces in places like Afghanistan.

The company is also tracking the ADF's CATS (JP66) requirement, which it will contest with the Banshee drone and the Gt-400 glide target; and it is eyeing the para-military law enforcement and National Security training markets.

Bodies such as the Australian Federal Police and the various state police forces and their armed intervention groups operate some 30 live fire small arms ranges between them, many quite old and in need of upgrade or replacement.

With attention now firmly on the terrorist threat, and a general acknowledgement that good people and proper training are the key to an effective response, the non-Defence market for specialised training services and capabilities looks set to grow.