Rheinmetall to supply C-390 flight simulators to the RNLAF

Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer has contracted Germany’s Rheinmetall to supply C-390 flight simulators to the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), Rheinmetall announced on 12 February 2025.

Under a joint purchase in co-operation with Austria announced in July 2024, five C-390 Millennium airlifters were ordered for the RNLAF, alongside four for the Austrian Air Force, with deliveries beginning in 2027.

Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall will be providing a Full Flight and Mission Simulator (FFMS) as well as a Cargo Handling Station Trainer (CHST). Production of the simulators will begin immediately, with delivery scheduled for the end of 2026. The order value, according to Rheinmetall, is in the double-digit-million Euro range and was booked in the first quarter of 2025.

The FFMS meets the Level D standard and satisfies all international qualification standards. It enables crews to be trained under normal and emergency conditions, military operations to be practised and more than 350 malfunctions to be simulated. The Dutch model will also be the first such simulator to use a new image generator.

The CHST, meanwhile, enables comprehensive training relating to cargo handling procedures for flight crews, loadmasters and other users. It uses the latest visual display technology to provide an interior view of the cargo compartment and an exterior view of the entire aircraft.

For Rheinmetall, the FFMS ordered as part of the RNLAF’s C-390 programme is the third major order worldwide and the second in Europe. Prior to the Dutch order Embraer itself and the Portuguese Air Force had already acquired an FFMS.

The C-390 Millennium, which made its maiden flight on 3 February 2015, is now in use or being introduced in Brazil, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and South Korea. In view of the growing number of C-390 customers in Europe, Embraer and Rheinmetall are considering establishing a European C-390 training centre to provide even better training support to existing and future C-390 customers. Currently, there is an Embraer C-390 training centre in the Brazilian state of São Paulo with an FFMS and a CHST, where Brazilian, Portuguese and Hungarian C-390 crews are currently undergoing training.