Embraer Phenom 100s for UKMFTS
Antonov and Saudi Arabia’s Taqnia Aeronautics Company have signed an MoU for the delivery of 30 An-178 multi-purpose aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), an extension of co- operation between the two companies. Under the new agreement, the two companies will also jointly market the An-178 to other Middle Eastern countries and promote special purpose variants of the An-148. Major General Ali Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, President of Taqnia Aeronautics, stated that the An-178 had been selected because of “its advantageous characteristics, price and low operating costs compared to other types in its class.”
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky have won contracts to provide ten MH-60R Seahawk helicopters for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF). The MH-60R will be used by the RSNF to guard against maritime security threats and for secondary missions including vertical replenishment, search and rescue (SAR) and communications relay. Airbus Defence and Space family of light and medium airlifters which also includes the earlier C212 and smaller CN235 platforms. Airbus Defence and Space now offers the C295W, featuring as standard winglets and higher engine power ratings, giving increased performance in all flight phases and lower fuel burn.”
The Embraer Phenom 100 business jet has been selected to provide multi-engine pilot training to armed forces aircrew in the United Kingdom. The contract with Affinity Flight Training Services will provide five aircraft to the UK Ministry of Defence’s Military Flying Training System, (UKMFTS) programme. The Fixed Wing programme is intended to replace the elementary, multi-engine and basic flying training that is currently delivered on aging platforms with a new fully integrated solution that provides state-of-the-art training aircraft, ground based training devices and courseware all derived from the training design developed by Ascent Flight Training, the training service provider of the MFTS programme in UK. In 2014, Affinity was selected by Ascent Flight Training to provide and operate the aircraft selected for the MFTS programme.