CAE USA is going ahead with a technology refresh contract for U.S. Navy MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopter simulators and training systems.

The green light to proceed with the work follows a U.S. Government Accountability Office decision to deny a contract protest by an unsuccessful bidder for the upgrade work.

"We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with the U.S. Navy on the MH-60 Seahawk platform following a competitive win on the MH-60 Tech Refresh program," said Ray Duquette, president and general manager of CAE USA. "The Navy has a definitive plan in place to increasingly use more simulation-based training throughout its overall training program, and the enhancements we make to the MH-60 Seahawk training systems will ultimately help the Navy provide higher fidelity and more cost-effective training to its MH-60 fleet squadrons."

Under the Navy contract, CAE will perform major updates and upgrades to the U.S. Navy's suite of MH-60S Sierra and MH-60R Romeo training systems, including tactical operational flight trainers and weapons tactics trainers located at four Naval Air Stations.

Some of the modernization includes delivering a common hardware/software baseline for more than 20 MH-60 Seahawk training devices, extending the visual field-of-view on existing MH-60S Sierra operational flight trainers, and converting an existing SH-60B helicopter simulator to an MH-60R tactical operational flight trainer.

Networking, interoperability and integration of MH-60 training systems are also part of the program, as is the Navy's procurement of two additional MH-60R tactical operational flight trainers.