Textron Systems Corporation, a Textron Inc. company, announced today that, through its affiliate, TRU Simulation + Training, it has been awarded a $39.3 million total contract value from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to provide operational trainers and curriculum for the Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) program. Textron Systems will provide motion and static trainer types and advanced electronic classrooms. Each trainer system provides varying levels of all the curriculum for the pilots, flight engineers, deck engineers and loadmasters to successfully operate an SSC. The base contract award has a period of performance of two years with integration work being completed at TRU Simulation + Training’s Goose Creek, SC facility. The trainers will be located at five U.S. Navy locations. Textron Systems is the SSC OEM and has 60 years of experience in test, training and simulation.
“The advanced SSC training systems provide critical education to SSC operators,” said Steve Mensh, Senior Vice President, Electronic Systems. “Textron Systems has decades of experience designing and integrating multi-domain trainers, so this is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our cross-domain expertise and provide farther reaching support to the U.S. Navy.”
The Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), also known as the LCAC 100 class, is a system proposed by the United States Navy as a replacement for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). It will offer an increased capacity to cope with the growing weight of equipment used by the United States Army and Marine Corps. The four Rolls-Royce MT7 gas turbines that will be used to power each Ship-to-Shore Connector are derivatives modelled after the design of the Rolls-Royce T406 used in the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. The cores of the two engines types are identical, which should provide some relief in spare parts storage to those ships that will operate both the (tiltrotor) aircraft and the hovercraft. Top speed will be 50 kn (58 mph; 93 km/h). A simpler and more efficient drivetrain using one gearbox is on each side for fewer parts, less maintenance and higher reliability.
TRU Simulation + Training Inc., part of the Textron Aviation segment of Textron Inc., is a leading provider of high-fidelity training devices and full-motion simulators for the aviation industry. With a strong commitment to excellence and innovation, TRU Simulation has been at the forefront of flight simulation technology for over a decade. Our customized simulator solutions empower pilots to navigate the skies confidently, while our state-of-the-art technology ensures safe and realistic training experiences.
Textron Systems is an aerospace and defense firm headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. The company is a world leader in uncrewed air, surface and land products, services and support founded on the combined expertise in Textron Inc. family of brands that includes Textron Systems, Howe & Howe, Lycoming, Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell, Cessna, Beechcraft, Pipistrel, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Arctic Cat and ATAC. Textron Inc. harness the unlimited power of teamwork to solve incredible problems across seven specialized domains: air, land, sea, propulsion, weapon systems, electronic systems and test, training & simulation. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company.
