Babcock scores another victory in France!
January 13, 2025
UK-headquartered Babcock was chosen as the preferred bidder for France’s 15-year, €800 million tri-service Mentor2 pilot training programme contract in November 2024, but the contract was not expected to be awarded until April 2025.
But on 10 January 2025, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA, French Armament Agency) announced that it had awarded the Mentor2 contract to Babcock International France Aviation.
The Mentor2 contract will see 22 Pilatus PC-7 Mk.X aircraft and 12 simulators deployed at Salon-de-Provence. These will deliver around 11,000 flying hours and 6,500 simulator training hours annually for approximately 120 student pilots, to replace the training now being provided on Cirrus SR20s and Grob G120As at Salon de Provence and Cognac air bases by the Airbus Flight Academy. The DGA announcement did not mention the three additional aircraft that had once been expected.
The PC-7 Mk.X is an improved and modernised version of the Pilatus PC-7 Mk.II, and is based on the latter’s type certificate, with various upgrades to the design and some systems to optimise the aircraft for the provision of basic training for young military pilots. Its proven Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25C engine is said to provide the lowest engine operating costs of all turboprop trainer aircraft.
At present, Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace student pilots and navigator/weapons system officers begin their training at Base Aérienne 701 (BA701) Salon-de-Provence, home to the Air School. After Initial Military Training, and General Military Training for Officers (FMGO), they progress to the Gliding Training Squadron.
Flying training proper then begins on the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft operated by the Escadron d’Instruction en Vol (EIV, flight training squadron) 3/5 “Comtat-Venaissin” (EIV03.005) and 2/93 “Cévennes” (EIV02.093). Student pilots then move to to Base Aérienne 709 (BA709) Cognac-Châteaubernard, where they complete 45 flights on the Grob G120A-F aircraft, and where they are streamed for fighter or multi-engined training.
The introduction of the FOMEDEC (Modernised Training and Differentiated Training of Fighter Crews) and MENTOR 1 systems enabled air force fighter pilot training to be conducted exclusively on the Pilatus PC-21, reducing training duration and cost, and allowing the retirement of the TB-30 Epsilon and (eventually) the Alphajet E.
In 2020, the air force identified shortcomings in the Cirrus/Grob phase, with the Cirrus SR20/SR22 in particular being judged as “very limited in their evolutions in the third dimension.” Replacing the Cirrus and Grob with a single type was felt to be the best approach, offering the opportunity to reduce the duration of the pilot training course by three and a half months.
However, in 2020, In response, the Mentor 2 project was developed to replace both the Cirrus SR20/SR22 and Grob G120.
After its experience of the Embraer 312F Tucano, whose high-altitude flight envelope was felt limited, the air force decided that its new trainer aircraft must have good medium-altitude performance.
