Australia's Ryan Aerospace bags US Navy flight simulator contract

Examples of the extended reality flight simulators that are being supplied by Ryan Aerospace to the US Navy. (Ryan Aerospace)

Ryan Aerospace (Australia) has secured a USD28 million contract to supply the US Navy (USN) with extended reality flight simulators.

Under the deal, Ryan Aerospace will supply 50 units of the equipment, which it refers to as immersive training devices (ITDs), to the USN's Naval Aviation Training Next (NATN) programme.

The ITDs can be configured to simulate a wide range of aircraft types.

Each unit consists of a virtual reality headset, a console set consisting of a monitor and a keyboard, and a cockpit seat with various flight controllers.

“The fact that they were designed with the future in mind, they can now rapidly and cost-effectively be transformed into mixed reality simulators for a different aircraft,” said Ryan Aerospace in a media statement to announce the contract.

“This is important for [the] government and taxpayers, as they are getting great value for money,” the statement added.

Ryan Aerospace has indicated that the contract will be delivered to the USN within the next 12 months.

In response to questions from Janes , Chris Ryan, managing director of Ryan Aerospace, said the units to be supplied to the USN will be installed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. These units will simulate the service's Beechcraft T-6 Texan II single-engine turboprop aircraft.