Rheinmetall’s Asterion simulator lets crews train even before delivery of the first NH90 NTH Sea Lion helicopter.

Thanks to advanced simulation technology from Rheinmetall, ground personnel of the German Navy’s new NH90 NTH Sea Lion helicopter are already able to start training. Back in mid-June of this year, Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH handed over the Functional Cockpit, an integral part of the Maintenance and Repair Trainer for the NH90 Naval Transport Helicopter (NTH). Rheinmetall developed the Functional Cockpit based on the Group’s in-house Asterion product line.

Asterion simulator (Picture source: Rheinmetall)

Enabling complete ground crew training, the Functional Cockpit is built into a full-size replica of the NH90 NTH Sea Lion transport helicopter. Thanks to early delivery of the training system, ground crews were able to begin preparing for their new tasks even before the arrival of the first original helicopter, which has since taken place.

Apart from its mission of training ground personnel who in future will be responsible for maintaining and repairing the new helicopter, the Functional Cockpit can also be used for instructing pilots. Particularly, to begin with, this will be a major advantage, as availability of the original helicopters for training purposes will necessarily be limited.

The Functional Cockpit for the NH90 NTH dispatched to Nordholz Naval Airbase was the second delivery of training systems for NH90 ground personnel. Asterion-based ground crew training systems were already in operation in Fassberg, a German Army Aviation Corps base in Lower Saxony. Here, Germany Army ground personnel undergo training in operational and maintenance procedures for the NH90 TTH in three exact replica cockpits.

The NH90 military helicopter is a modern, multi-role aircraft designed to meet the most stringent NATO standards. Developed in two versions – tactical troop transport (TTH) and NATO frigate helicopter (NFH) – the NH90 contains a unique, fully integrated mission system for operations in the most demanding conditions over land and sea, day and night.

The NH90’s NFH version is a ship-based compact maritime helicopter, one of the primary maritime weapon systems for any surface fleet. Operating from shore or warships in all flyable conditions, the helicopter is tailored for full capability in both anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface (ASuW) warfare. Search and rescue operations can be performed in either of these configurations.

 The Sea Lion combines features of the TTH troop transport version with the marinized airframe of the NFH anti-submarine helicopter (Picture source: Airbus Helicopters)