Lockheed Martin has developed an F-35 fighter trainer with less hardware, allowing the United States and its allies to expand the aircraft's training capabilities at a lower cost.

Lockheed Martin unveiled the F-35 Mission Rehearsal Trainer Lightning Integrated Training Environment (MRT-LITE) simulator at its annual inter service/industry training, simulation, and education conference. On November 30th, Lockheed Martin revealed that this disclosure was made after approximately 18 months of research and demonstration with F-35 project clients.

Lockheed Martin stated that the F-35 full mission simulator has a 360 degree visual effect and can provide a complete cockpit experience. Currently, there are over 100 units available worldwide.

Luoma Company pointed out that MRT-LITE can reduce the space required to run the same software, reducing its hardware by 90%. Eight MRT-LITEs can be installed in the allocated space of a full task simulator. The MRT-LITE model has three screens and is only used for forward viewing.

In addition to the reduced view, the MRT-LITE model also eliminates some switches and other interfaces that are only used for emergency procedures, as well as other modifications. The trainer covers 75% of the F-35 mission set, including all over the horizon missions of the fifth generation fighter mission center.

Loma also stated that due to the customer's demand for portable, economical, and space saving products, the trainer is fully modular and can be disassembled and reassembled within hours to meet the customer's portability needs; This trainer can not only supplement the existing full mission simulator on the site, but can also be installed in trailers at ports and airports as needed, and even on aircraft carriers for training during deployment. Customers can purchase "many of these trainers" for the cost of a full task simulator.

Source: National Aerospace Information