Latest news with #M-346
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
M-346N Pitched To Replace Navy's T-45 Goshawk Jet Trainers
In partnership with Leonardo, Textron continues to offer the M-346N to meet the U.S. Navy's requirement for a new jet trainer, to replace the aging T-45 Goshawk. TWZ caught up with Textron Aviation Defense's Steven 'JoJo' Heller, flight test and demonstration pilot, at the Sea-Air-Space Conference this week in National Harbor, Maryland, to get a better understanding of the joint proposal. This is based around a Navy-specific version of the M-346, but, as he explains, this is just one component of a fully integrated training system. After all, a big part of the Textron-Leonardo team's pitch is that the M-346 isn't just a jet, but is tied into a whole training enterprise that is already in use on a global scale, including for international F-35 pilot training. In June of last year, the Navy released a new request for information for its new trainer, under the Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) program. Heller says he expects the service to award a contract for its new jet trainer in early 2027. In the past, the Navy has indicated a minimum buy of 145 aircraft. While the Navy had been grappling with whether or not its new jet trainer needs to be carrier-capable, Heller tells TWZ that the Navy has now signaled to the company that the 'aircraft carrier is no longer going to be a direct part of real aircraft training,' with carrier approaches to be practiced from land bases and in the simulator. You can read more in detail about the arguments the Navy presented in the past for making this decision here. The M-346N will offer some unique features over likely competitors, including twin engines. Although M-346 is not a supersonic trainer with an afterburner, the aircraft is still highly maneuverable and features a throttle detent system that mimics an afterburner to new pilots. Check out all the latest on the M-346N offering in our video below: Contact the author: thomas@
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Leonardo refutes Russian bones in M-346 trainer aircraft design
ROME — Italy's Leonardo is talking up the European pedigree of its M-346 jet trainer after British newspapers claimed it was based on a Russian design. British tabloids made the allegations after reports that the M-346 was being considered as a replacement for aging BAE Hawk T1 jets flown by the U.K.'s Red Arrows display team. Leonardo worked jointly on the design of a jet trainer with Russian firm Yakovlev from 1993 to 2000 before the team-up was dissolved and each firm went on to produce their own trainers. That did not stop the UK Sun newspaper reporting the M-346 was 'Russian designed' in an article titled 'Air Farce' on Monday. The daily quoted James Cartlidge, the defense spokesman for the UK's Conservative opposition party saying, 'When the Red Arrows perform their brilliant air displays, their red, white and blue vapor trails represent the Union Jack — not the Russian tricolor.' As other tabloids picked up the story, British prime minister Keir Starmer was asked on Monday to guarantee that the Red Arrows' next jet would not be designed by Russia. 'I can give you that guarantee – it's very, very important that we don't have Russian influence in Red Arrows or anything else for that matter,' said. A spokesman for Starmer said there was no procurement plan in place to replace the Hawks. Leonardo fought back, claiming, 'The M-346 was designed, developed and produced in Europe to the most stringent NATO standards.' The Italian firm pointed out that pilots from around Europe, as well as the U.K., have already trained on the jet in Italy. Aermacchi, the Italian jet trainer builder later purchased by Leonardo, racked up 300 flights while working on a prototype jet trainer with Russia's Yakovlev. But in 2000 the firms ended their collaboration when Yakovlev refused to consider using a U.S. Honeywell engine. 'There was a total disagreement – the Russians would not accept an American engine on a Russian military plane,' said Paolo Mezzanotte, who worked at Aermacchi at the time. When the firms went their separate ways, Italy built the M-346 while Yakovlev built the Yak-130. 'The Russians went on to copy the Honeywell engine after the split, ironically producing it in Ukraine,' Mezzanotte said. He said that the outside form of the two aircraft was similar, but the similarities stopped there. 'The manufacturing technology, the general systems, the mission systems, the propulsion and the flight control system on the M-346 is totally different. Italy did acquire the Yakovlev documentation about the plane but then redesigned it completely,' he said. 'Yakovlev had great engineers but their manufacturing at the time was at the level of Italian manufacturing in the 1950s,' he added.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Italy looks to fighter friend Japan for a new maritime-patrol plane
ROME — Italy is considering buying the Japanese Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft to tackle hostile submarines in the Mediterranean, a move which would break an Italian tradition of U.S. aircraft purchases and strengthen ties with Tokyo. 'The P-1 is is one of the possible options available,' Italian Air Force chief Luca Goretti told reporters on Friday when asked how Italy aimed to fill gaps in its maritime patrol capability. 'We have a great relationship with Japan,' he added. A four engine platform designed from scratch as a maritime patrol aircraft, the P-1 has been in service in Japan since 2013. While export efforts to date have not been successful, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force now operates 33 aircraft. As Italy retired the last of its long serving Atlantique maritime patrol planes in 2017 it acquired ATR 72′s jointly built by Airbus and local firm Leonardo to fill the role, operated by mixed Air Force and Navy crews. But while offering electronically scanned radar, the aircraft lacked anti-submarine warfare capabilities and were only considered a gap filler. A new purchase to fill that gap would coincide with renewed naval activity in the Mediterranean by friendly and hostile powers. Acquiring the P-1 instead of the US P-8 aircraft would follow years in which Italy has looked to the U.S. for imported aircraft including B767 tankers, C-130s, Gulfstream sensor aircraft, F-35s and Reaper drones. Italy has recently boosted ties with Japan as the two countries team with the U.K. on the GCAP sixth-generation fighter program. In 2023, Leonardo also pitched its M-346 jet trainer to Japan to replace Tokyo's Kawasaki T-4 trainers after Japanese pilots were dispatched to train on the M-346 in Italy. In an address to the Italian parliament about the GCAP program on March 13, Air Force chief Goretti said working with Japan on the sixth-generation jet was prompting discussion about other possible team-ups. 'Right now there is an Italian delegation in Japan because there are other chances for growth with (Japan) including the development of a trainer for them as well as a joint patrol aircraft,' he said. 'Our collaboration has opened other horizons which were unthinkable until very recently,' he added. Goretti's suggestion of an Italian jet trainer deal with Japan and a Japanese patrol aircraft deal with Italy hinted at a possible trade-off which recalls how Italy sold the M-346 to Israel in 2012 in return for buying Israeli sensor-laden Gulfstreams and an Israeli surveillance satellite.
