Copernicus Technology completes delivery of Maritime Patrol Aircraft training courses

Over the last 9 months Copernicus Technology successfully delivered several 3-week Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) Bridging Courses in Moray, Scotland, for an overseas client who needed to prepare their staff for OEM conversion to a modern MPA.

The customer had identified individual courses for their staff in different locations/times, but only Copernicus Technology offered all the appropriate subject matter as part of a coherent course that was directly relevant and was programmed appropriately in relation to their next stage.  The experience level of the client’s staff was broad, including some who had operated much older surveillance platforms and others with no flying experience at all, but with some background in Electronic Warfare (EW).  The courses effectively ensured that all the participants understood the employment of modern MPA/ISR sensors and systems in the airborne environment, including:

• Radar
• ESM
• EO/IR
• Self-Defence suites
• Communications and Datalinks

It also explained how to manage and exploit the best from them and hence ensure the crew and aircraft are disciplined in order to maximise the capability across a wide range of Surface Surveillance Maritime Operations, along with other ISR aspects that such a powerful modern platform can provide.  The courses were classroom-based but, vitally, they did not get too bogged down in theory: appropriate context was applied throughout.  Furthermore they involved the use of emulators for some systems and several practical/table-top exercises to ensure knowledge was consolidated and that the staff could demonstrate some of the procedural disciplines for Maritime Operations that had been taught. 

The courses were very well received by the customer, who genuinely recognised the relevance we were able to apply to them because of the enormous MPA experience of the Copernicus Technology staff teaching the course.  Our 6 instructors have around 37,000 MPA/ISR flying hours between them across a full range of operations, training and flying supervision. 

Copernicus Technology Ltd are fully capable of adding exploitation of Acoustics and other sensors in Anti-Submarine Warfare for other clients.