Military Training and Simulation Contracts in Europe 2026

Training and simulation is bought in two places at once

European training and simulation procurement is structurally split, and the split determines who can win.

The first route is embedded: simulators are a line item inside a platform contract, awarded to the platform prime, and reach specialist suppliers only as subcontracts. The UK New Medium Helicopter award is the current example. The contract was signed with Leonardo UK Ltd on 23 March 2026 for £989,469,800 over 91 months, and the published high-level requirement lists, alongside 23 aircraft, « 2 x aircrew and rear crew Flight Simulation Training Devices (FSTD) at the UK Main Operating Base », instructor and aircrew training courses, and courseware. [1] No standalone simulator tender will ever be issued for those devices.

The second route is standalone: a training capability is competed in its own right. The Netherlands awarded the Replacement of Initial Military Flight Training Capacity to Pilatus Aircraft Ltd at €121,000,000, published on 12 February 2025 under CPV codes covering both training aircraft and flight simulators. [2]

A supplier monitoring only simulator CPV codes will see the second and miss the first — which, in value terms, is usually the larger.

The market consultation is the most actionable signal in this segment

Training procurement is unusually well served by preliminary market consultations, because ministries genuinely do not know what a realistic simulator specification costs until they ask.

Our monitoring flagged the Dutch H225M requirement on 14 January 2025, when the Ministry of Defence published a market consultation stating in plain terms: « The Netherlands has a requirement for two H225M Caracal flight crew simulators for tactical, full mission training. The requirement consists of two cockpit trainers, two rear cabin trainers and two deployable mission rehearsal trainers. This market consultation aims to benchmark the ambition, the possibilities, and moreover assists in the realisation of a realistic and affordable tender. » [3]

That is a complete requirement description, published before any tender, with an explicit invitation to shape it. For a simulator house, a motion-system supplier, an image-generator vendor or a courseware developer, a consultation of this kind is worth more than the eventual notice, because participation is open and the specification is still movable.

Training and simulation programmes currently tracked

Values are as published by the contracting authority. Where a consultation or a domain envelope is the only published figure, we say so.

Belgium has published the clearest training investment map in Europe

The Belgian Capability Investment Portfolio, approved by government on 18 July 2025, is the most granular published training plan currently available in Europe. It separates four distinct training programmes in the air domain alone. [4]

Fiche Z 130, the European Operational Training Infrastructure (OTI) programme, is worth €202,632,173 with first commitment year 2026 and settlements 2027-2032. Its official description is explicit about the industrial object: « international collaboration on key training centres, the use of networked simulators to expand training capacity and increase interoperability for F-35 nations », the development of « an operational training environment, preferably in Europe », and « the acquisition of simulated ground threats like emitters and surrogates that could be put to use for the coalition ».

Fiche Z 131, NATO Advanced Flight Training Europe, is worth €101,620,000 with first commitment year 2027. It describes « a collaborative structured training and qualification programme for future air combat pilots », building on the Basic Flight Training Concept and intended to increase « production volume, quality, and system resiliency ».

In the land domain, fiche Z 024 covers « a mix of weapon system simulators (Caesar, Griffon, Jaguar, MMP, ...) as well as the necessary updates and acquisitions for indoor and outdoor training simulation systems such as Training Centre Sim, Small Arms Tactical Trainer », with first commitment year 2026 and settlements 2027-2032, classified « New contract(s) ». A special operations short take-off and landing flight simulator sits separately at fiche Z 097, first commitment year 2029.

Four named programmes, four first commitment years between 2026 and 2029, three of them flagged as new contracts. That is a two-to-four-year working window, published in a single document.

Where the openings are for specialist suppliers

Three practical observations follow from the pipeline above.

Emitters and surrogates are a distinct market. The Belgian OTI line explicitly funds simulated ground threats for coalition use. Threat-emitter manufacturers, RF surrogate builders and range instrumentation firms are addressed by this line and by nothing else in the portfolio.

Networked and distributed training is where interoperability money goes. Both the OTI programme and NATO Advanced Flight Training Europe are collaborative by design. The procurement objects are connectivity, data standards, security accreditation and distributed mission operations infrastructure — not simply devices.

Platform contracts are the real simulator market. The New Medium Helicopter award carries two full flight simulation training devices, instructor courses and courseware inside a platform contract. [1] A simulator supplier's route to that work is the platform prime, engaged before the design is frozen, not a public tender.

How Dfensio tracks training and simulation programmes

Dfensio reads capability portfolios, programming laws, budget performance annexes and preliminary market consultations, and it reads the full scope text of platform awards rather than their headline value. Every record carries the official figure where one exists, the first commitment year, the contracting scope declared by the state, and the source with its publication date.

Two techniques matter in this category. First, we parse award notices for embedded training content: the phrase that reveals two flight simulation training devices inside a billion-pound helicopter contract sits in the requirement description, not in the title or the classification codes. Second, we track market consultations as first-class events, because in training and simulation they are frequently the only stage at which a specialist supplier can influence a specification — and they carry a published deadline for expressions of interest.

Briefings are confidential and built only from official published sources. We do not handle classified or restricted material, and we do not disclose which programmes a client is following.

Next steps for training and simulation suppliers

The practical sequence: identify the national training lines with a first commitment year of 2026 or 2027 and check whether the state has classified them as new contracts; register for preliminary market consultations, which are open to any interested supplier and are the cheapest form of access in this segment; and, for embedded work, approach the platform prime while the training system requirements document is still being written.

Dfensio's analysts are available to answer questions on any training and simulation programme mentioned here — request a confidential briefing at dfensio.com/contact.