{"id":19975,"date":"2026-05-27T05:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/19975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T05:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:46:19","slug":"italys-leonardo-sells-advanced-military-trainer-aircraft-to-itps-canada-as-demand-for-combat-pilots-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/19975\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s Leonardo sells advanced military trainer aircraft to ITPS Canada as demand for combat pilots rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

M-346 jets inside the IFTS maintenance hangar at the Decimomannu Air Base, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy.Fabrizio Troccoli\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s biggest defence contractor, Leonardo SpA, has sold as many as 12 advanced jets to ITPS Canada, a private company that trains military and civilian pilots. The deal reflects the surging demand among NATO countries for new pilots as defence budgets climb.<\/p>\n

ITPS agreed to purchase six M-346 twin-engine jets, with options for another six. <\/p>\n

The price of the deal was not disclosed, but the planes typically sell for US$20-million to US$40-million apiece, depending on equipment options and other factors such as maintenance contracts and ground-based training in simulators. <\/p>\n

Assuming a US$30-million price point and the purchase of the full complement of 12 planes, the sale would be valued at more than US$350-million. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian aviator Major Brian Kilroy of the Royal Canadian Air Force aboard the M-346 aircraft.Fabrizio Troccoli\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The deal marks the M-346\u2019s first foray in Canada. Leonardo, which is Europe\u2019s second-biggest defence company, after Britain\u2019s BAE Systems PLC, is also trying to sell the aircraft to the Royal Canadian Air Force. The M-346\u2019s main competition for that contract is thought to be the Boeing-Saab T-7 Red Hawk, which is used by the United States Air Force. <\/p>\n

The RCAF is in the market for an advanced lead-in fighter trainer \u2013 an aircraft whose student-pilot graduates would go on to fly the latest-generation fighter-bombers, including the Lockheed Martin F-35, the Saab Gripen and Eurofighter Typhoon. Canada has ordered 88 F-35s but has so far committed to take only 16 of them.<\/p>\n

All of the RCAF\u2019s lead-in fighter training is currently done outside Canada because the force lacks suitable aircraft. <\/p>\n

ITPS will take delivery of the first M-346 in 2029. The company, which operates the International Tactical Training Centre (ITTC) for student pilots in North Bay, Ont., plans to use the aircraft to train pilots from NATO countries and its allies. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs allied air forces look to expand training capacity and interoperability, the M-346 will help enable ITTC to welcome pilots from Canada and partner nations to train together in a modern and operationally focused environment,\u201d chief executive officer David Lohse said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Some 20 countries, including Canada, already train military pilots on M-346s at the International Flight Training School in Sardinia, Italy. The school, which uses an Italian air force base\u2019s runways, is operated by Leonardo and Canada\u2019s CAE Inc., the world\u2019s biggest maker of flight simulators. <\/p>\n

How former Canadian fighter pilots built one of our most successful defence companies helping train foreign militaries<\/a><\/p>\n

Of the 28 M-346s in the school\u2019s fleet, four are owned by a CAE-Leonardo partnership. The two companies hope to clone the school, which currently has four Canadian student pilots and three Canadian instructors, in Canada and other countries. <\/p>\n

ITPS was established in Britain in 1986 and later moved its primary base to London, Ont.\u2019s airport. It has 28 aircraft, of which 16 are jet trainers, and also trains pilots on helicopters. <\/p>\n

The company has 200 employees and was primarily built by Giorgio Clementi, a flight test engineer and former CEO who remains its executive chairman. He began his aviation career in South Africa in the 1980s. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: M-346 jets inside the IFTS maintenance hangar at the Decimomannu Air Base, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4293,4283,4294,1188,4276,1557,147,4275,4288,4289,4285,4277,4274,1131,4292,1294,4287,201,4305,4278,4279,3297,5,4284,1815,1333,4295,4281,4300,4301,4303,4298,4302,4296,4299,4280,3867,4291,356,4290,4297,3869,1138,614,4286,4282,243,4304],"class_list":["post-19975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-italy","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}