Meggitt Awarded £10.2 Million UK Ministry of Defence Contract

August 4, 2015 | By Business Wire News

SUWANEE, Ga.

Meggitt has been awarded £10.2 million in contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to upgrade British Army Dismounted Close Combat Trainers (DCCT)—small arms trainers. The three contracts, awarded in June and July 2015, upgrade existing trainers with the FATS® M100 system architecture, provide DCCT portable configurations, and add Future Integrated Soldier Technology (FIST) Phase 4 Fire Control System (FCS) simulation training onto the DCCT platform as a complement to live-fire FIST equipment.

Two contracts include an expansion of Meggitt’s FATS® M100 system architecture across the balance of the MoD small arms trainers, and upgrades to their Forward Air Controller (FAC) and Indirect Fire trainers. The FATS® M100 small arms trainer supports the next-generation of military training systems and Meggitt’s own simulated weapons selection, incorporating marksmanship, judgmental videos, traditional computer generated imagery and third-party virtual simulation products.

The integrated training solution leverages the existing DCCT capabilities and the FATS® M100 architecture enhanced system features for long-term capability, growth and training sustainability for the UK small arms trainers. This DCCT growth path enables FIST training, long-term system sustainment and productive capability growth to meet future training requirements.

The simulation elements and enhanced software applications are being designed and produced by Meggitt Training Systems in Suwanee, Georgia, USA. Meggitt Target Systems (formerly Meggitt Defence Systems) in Ashford, UK, provides logistics support for DCCT.

Meggitt Training Systems’ Vice President of Virtual Systems, Larry Raines, commented, “Meggitt is committed to a continued, long-term partnership with the UK MoD, one of our most important virtual training system customers. As combat training requirements change and the consolidation of resources and manpower grow in importance, the UK MoD’s investment in DCCT validates Meggitt’s cost-effective and flexible growth path for evolving UK MoD requirements.”

Meggitt Training Systems’ DCCT has been the UK MoD’s primary small arms training system since 2003, delivering the first small arms trainers to the British Army in 1992. Similar systems are in service with US forces, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and various countries throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

About Meggitt Training Systems

Meggitt Training Systems, makers of FATS® and Caswell technologies, a division of Meggitt PLC, is the leading supplier of integrated live fire and virtual weapons training systems, unmanned land and sea vehicles, aerial targets and electronic scoring systems. Over 13,000 Meggitt live fire ranges and 5,100 virtual systems are fielded internationally, providing judgmental, situational awareness and marksmanship training to the armed forces, law enforcement and security organizations.

Meggitt Training Systems employs more than 400 people at its headquarters in Atlanta and at facilities in Orlando, Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, UAE, Australia and Singapore. It can deploy service personnel anywhere in the world for instructor training, system installation and maintenance.

About Meggitt Target Systems

Meggitt Target Systems (MTAS), a division of Meggitt PLC, is a global provider of unmanned air, land and surface vehicle targets for live-fire training and weapon system test and evaluation. MTAS designs and develops threat-representative targets and special mission platforms at manufacturing facilities in Ashford, UK and Alberta, Canada. Meggitt Defence Systems in Ashford and Meggitt Training Systems in Alberta combined in 2015 to form Meggitt Target Systems. Together, MTAS has manufactured over 10,000 targets, and is in service in more than 40 countries, including 15 NATO customers.

About Meggitt PLC

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Meggitt PLC is an international group operating in North America, Europe and Asia. Known for its specialized extreme environment engineering, Meggitt is a world leader in aerospace, defense and energy. Meggitt employs nearly 11,000 people at over 40 manufacturing facilities and regional offices worldwide.