The strategic 2000s
The advent of the new millennium crystallized the company's vision and lent it new resolve and focus. After decades as the world leader in the design and manufacture of simulation equipment, CAE was about to take bold steps to become a global leader in the provision of aviation training services. The year 2000 will be remembered in the annals of CAE history as the year the company announced plans to build a global training network—a move that would ultimately provide CAE with the unparalleled ability to offer customers the most comprehensive package of products and services available from anyone in the simulation and training industry.
Through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, CAE's training organization grew rapidly during the early part of the decade. The company opened its own training centres in locations such as Sao Paulo and Toronto. Next came acquisitions aimed at accelerating CAE's global training footprint. With the purchase of Netherlands-based Schreiner Aviation Training in 2001, CAE became the world's second largest independent provider of aviation training services. A year later, the acquisition of SimuFlite quickly catapulted the company into business aviation training. All the while, CAE was establishing strategic training partnerships and alliances with airlines around the world, including Emirates, Alitalia, Iberia, Lan Chile and China Southern, and with major aircraft manufacturers like Airbus, Embraer, Bombardier and Dassault.
These initiatives have made CAE's civil training and services unit the industry powerhouse it is today-global in every sense with a network of 24 training centres on five continents, and more than 110 simulators serving airlines, operators and aircraft manufacturers. More than 50,000 pilots and crews train each year with CAE. In just a few short years, the company has earned a reputation for uncompromising quality and expertise for training delivered close to the customer and customized to meet their unique requirements.
While CAE was expanding into aviation training, the company also recognized its military simulation and training unit had untapped potential. Namely, CAE needed a presence in the United States, by far the world's largest defence market. In 2001, CAE acquired Florida-based BAE SYSTEMS Flight Simulation and Training to provide CAE improved access to U.S. military opportunities. The move found early success as the renamed CAE USA won a contract with the U.S. Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the famed Night Stalkers, to provide the world's first A/MH-6 Little Bird helicopter simulator. Over the next several years, CAE's military business in the United States doubled as the company built on its relationship with the 160th and won key programs for U.S. Navy helicopter simulators and U.S. Air Force C-130J training systems. The company also established key relationships with major manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing, with the latter awarding CAE its Outstanding Supplier Award in 2006.
At the same time, other parts of CAE's military business began to flourish. In the U.K., the world's first military training private finance initiative began operational training at CAE's Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility. CAE Gmbh in Stolberg, Germany continued to thrive with key positions on European multi-national programs such as Eurofighter and NH90. CAE Australia established CAE as a key player "down under" as the company became an authorized engineering organization for supporting a range of Australian Defence Forces flight simulators. And now CAE's military business is set for future growth as the company plans initiatives and acquisitions to expand into modelling and simulation, homeland defence and other emerging markets.
Through this decade and continuing into the future, one thing will never change at CAE - technology leadership and innovation. No company in the simulation industry can match CAE's thirst for continuous technological innovation. The company has maintained its worldwide leadership position as the premier provider of simulation products. This has been evidenced already this decade with products such as the CAE Simfinity™, CAE Tropos™ and CAE Medallion™ visual systems, and numerous product improvements such as electric motion that make CAE's flight simulators the gold standard. And the future looks brighter than ever for CAE's continued simulation technology leadership, as the company embarked in 2005 on Project Phoenix, the largest research and development initiative ever undertaken at CAE.
