Full Mission Simulator

CAE designs and manufactures some of the most complex full-mission simulators in the world. A full-mission simulator (FMS) accurately simulates the aircraft and the mission environment it will operate in. The simulator will recreate sounds, motion, visual scenes, instrument presentations and all other systems in order to create a realistic flight training environment. The pilot will be able to train for landing, takeoff, weapons delivery, night flight, formation flight and cockpit familiarization in normal, adverse and emergency situations. The handling characteristics of the simulator represent actual aircraft characteristics based on available flight data and input from experienced pilots. In addition, many full-mission simulators have the ability to network with other synthetic training devices so military forces can "train as they fight."

Note that different militaries around the world use various names for a full-mission simulator. Some of these include operational flight trainer (OFT), dynamic mission simulator, combat mission simulator (CMS), weapon systems trainer (WST), or full-flight and mission simulator (FFMS). For example, the U.S. Air Force refers to all of their full-mission simulators as "WSTs" regardless if the aircraft platform carries weapons or not, while the U.S. Army uses the term CMS, and the Australian Defence Forces use the term FFMS.