Navy overhauling primary flight trng

The Navy is in the midst of overhauling its primary flight training curriculum for the first time in a half century, and has a goal to produce more capable newbie-aviators and get them to the fleet faster. The Naval Aviation Training Next–Project Avenger, the new training program, aims to reduce the length of time it takes to train students by combining classroom and flight time in the T-6B Texan II – mixing virtual and real trainers, AI, tablets and aviation apps. The program was kicked off last September. That first class of 19 student-aviators completed training April 1 at Training Air Wing 4 at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. TAW-5 at NAS Whiting Field, Fla., will begin its new training this summer. The Navy anticipates the new program will reduce the time it takes to produce a naval aviator in order to cut into the shortage of 100 fighter pilots in the fleet. The traditional syllabus takes students about 29 weeks to complete. Project Avenger students didn’t dramatically change that in the first iteration, although it was noted that was a small reduction in time. The Navy also intends a new approach to the secondary phase of flight training, which is being called Project Hellcat, a T-6B strike intermediate syllabus, and Project Corsair, an advanced T-45C Goshawk strike syllabus. Shortened training will become more evident in those later phases, said Lt. Cmdr. Josh Calhoun, Project Avenger officer in charge. Ultimately, Project Avenger will become the standard training for student-aviators in primary flight training. A few more iterations of the program will be needed before the Navy gives its final approval on the best method(s) for future aviators. (Source: Navy Times 05/25/21) Mississippi Note: NAS Columbus, Miss., is one of three bases where secondary flight training in the T-45C strike syllabus occurs. Navy’s new ‘Project Avenger’ flight training program aims to produce stronger aviators (navytimes.com)