F-35 Acquisition and Operational Readiness Preparation

Royal NLR has a long standing tradition of support to the Netherlands Armed Forces and other customers for test and evaluation activities. NLR has been supporting the Netherlands Ministry of Defence and the Royal Netherlands Air Force in the F-35 acquisition and test and evaluation activities for a number of years. 

The Challenge

NLR supported the Royal Netherlands Airforce (RNLAF) with the F-35 acquisition and operational readiness by focusing on transforming the Defence Equipment Organisation (DMO) into a smart buyer and by assist­ing the Air Force with a smooth transition from F-16 to F-35.

The Solution

Within this programme, multiple training & education projects have been carried out to design and improve training for pilots, maintenance staff, and mission support crew. Training methods, tools and activities conduct­ed by NLR throughout the F-35 programme included:

  • Training Needs Analysis for pilot maintenance staff, and mission-support roles
  • Design of a F-35 Pilot Competency Profile, initial and recurrent training course content
  • Training Media Selection Analysis
  • Business case for a Maintainer Training Centre (MTC)

What did we do?

NLR helped develop a variety of services, including:

  • Initial and recurrent training course content for pilots and maintenance staff
  • Design and execution of an Operational Test & Evaluation plan for Continuation Training
  • Design and construction of a WLT (Weapons Loader Trainer) including Augmented Reality applications.

Project partners

Industry (NL) : Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), Defence Equipment Organisation (DMO)
Research organisations : Royal NLR and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)
Start : February 2000
Duration : ongoing

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