The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) in the United States has recently unveiled the new advanced training aircraft, the Freedom Trainer. The aircraft is set to participate in the UJTS (Undergraduate Jet Training System) competition of the United States Navy.
The Freedom Trainer is an aircraft custom-designed for the US Navy, aiming to transform the future of naval aviation with uncompromised performance and reduced operating costs.
As part of the Freedom Family of Training Systems (FoTS), the Freedom Trainer brings significant advances to the training capabilities of the United States Navy, adhering to the philosophy ‘_Train the Way you Fight – Zero Compromise_’.
Characteristics of the Freedom Trainer
The SNC-developed aircraft stands out among competitors for the UJTS as the only one capable of performing touch-and-go operations (up to 35,000 predicted) on aircraft carriers and Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) up to touchdown. This ensures pilots gain essential skills from the outset, without significantly increased costs and without prematurely wearing out high-tier aircraft.
The aircraft allows trained pilots to transition seamlessly onto 4th and 5th generation aircraft, capable of withstand pressures from -3 to +8 G.
According to SNC, their Freedom Trainer, in addition to meeting the Navy’s traditional stringent landing requirements, offers significantly reduced lifecycle costs, with engine-related expenses 40% lower than the Navy’s current trainers and halved compared to land-based trainer costs.
In the design phase, the Freedom Trainer was developed to have a useful life of 16,000 hours, negating the need for unplanned Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP), but still allowing for a mission average duration increase of 30-40%.
This capacity of the SNC aircraft enables increased training time with less total lifecycle expense.
Moreover, the Freedom Trainer adopts a proprietary digital design of the United States Navy, in addition to a open system architecture. This allows for constant upgrades to the platform, as well as integration with systems and equipment required by other clients.
Source and photo credit: @Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC)
