ROME \u2014 The International Test Pilot School (ITPS) in Canada has signed to buy up to 12 M-346 trainer jets from Leonardo, the Italian firm said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The privately run school for fighter pilots in Ontario will acquire six jets with options for another six, with deliveries due to start in 2029, Leonardo said.<\/p>\n
The school has chosen the Block 20 version of the platform, which features a new cockpit with a Large Area Display designed to train pilots to fly 5th-generation aircraft like the F-35.<\/p>\n
The ITPS currently trains pilots on the Aero Vodochody L-39 and is working with over ten air forces to provide advanced jet training, ITPS Executive Chairman Giorgio Clementi said.<\/p>\n
The M-346 has now flown over 160,000 hours with over 160 aircraft sold to date.<\/p>\n
The aircraft originated as a pure trainer jet which has been sold to Italy, the Republic of Singapore, Israel, Poland, Qatar and Greece.<\/p>\n
Its more recent trainer-light fighter version has been sold to Indonesia, Turkmenistan, Austria and Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The fighter version boasts seven external hard points able to integrate air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions and targeting pods linked to Helmet Mounted Displays.<\/p>\n
Leonardo is also seeking to sell the trainer to the U.S. Navy and has teamed with Textron to offer an American-built version.<\/p>\n
The Navy is seeking to replace its fleet of Boeing T-45 Goshawks.<\/p>\n
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2014 The International Test Pilot School (ITPS) in Canada has signed to buy up to 12 M-346…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,7131,7132,7128,5046,26916,26717,26718,7130],"class_list":["post-62790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-circulated-defense-news","tag-defense-news","tag-dn-dnr","tag-italy","tag-jet-trainer","tag-leonardo","tag-m-346","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}