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Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment

Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment

The Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, better known as AETE, consists of a military and civilian team of 249 personnel with a wide variety of skills and knowledge, dedicated to the mission of providing cost-effective, timely, quality engineering evaluations of the airworthiness and operational effectiveness of the Air Force's aerospace systems.

The key aspect of the evaluations conducted by AETE is that they are conducted using the Aircraft in flight as the test bench for the evaluations.

Established in 1971 by amalgamating the evaluation establishments of the former separate services, AETE is commanded by a full colonel and is a Materiel Group field unit. The Director General Aerospace Equipment Program Management at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa administers control of the unit.

Although a lodger unit of 4 Wing and closely associated with the support of the CF-18 program, AETE evaluators are engaged in projects with all of the Air Force fleets at locations across Canada and abroad.

In order to support these evaluation teams, AETE has a number of integral resources including specially instrumented Aircraft, Aircraft maintenance, and a comprehensive system of engineering quality data acquisition and processing equipment. A significant number of these resources can be deployed with evaluation teams.

The personnel of AETE are proud to be accountable for the evaluation of all new equipment introduced to the fleets and to be called upon for informed opinion in addressing the sometimes difficult issues associated with the technological aspects of the application of air power.

The AETE motto "Experto Crede" or "trust the one who knows" exemplifies the raison d'etre of AETE: to gather information and knowledge so that the Air Force can make informed decisions.