CAE and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc are to jointly develop a training system for Italy for Predator Unmanned aerial vehicles.

Announcement of the project commissioned by the Italian Directorate for Air Armaments and Airworthiness was made at the Paris Air Show.

"Our Predator has proven to be capable of providing the Italian Air Force with an agile and flexible ISR capability, and we expect to increasingly use this platform for this kind of purpose," said an official from the Italian Air Force. "We need highly-skilled and well-trained Predator crews to fully leverage its capabilities, and our new high-fidelity training system will enable us to use a safe and cost-effective virtual training environment to better prepare our Predator aircrews for operational missions.

"In addition, we plan to develop the Italian Air Force Centre of Excellence for unmanned systems, a first for training in the European region, and we will invite future users from allied nations to jointly train at our facility."

Italy first ordered the Predator UAV in 2008 through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program – four aircraft and four ground stations. It ordered two additional systems the following year.

The medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft are made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, or GA-ASI.

CAE and GA-ASI said they will upgrade current training systems used by Italy for the Predator and intend to develop a high-fidelity UAS Mission Trainer specifically representing the Italian Air Force's Predator(R) A and Predator B/MQ-9 UAS.

CAE will conduct flight test data gathering on actual Italian Air Force Predator A and Predator B/MQ-9 aircraft to ensure the highest fidelity simulation of flight systems and sensor payloads.

The first Predator UAS Mission Trainer will be delivered in 2017.