FARNBOROUGH—Leonardo is upgrading its M-346 advanced trainer and light-attack aircraft with new cockpit avionics to ensure the platform is ready to train pilots for the next generation of combat aircraft.
The Blk. 20 upgrade, announced here on the first day of Farnborough Airshow, will transform the two-seater aircraft’s avionics package. It includes new wide-area multi-function screens in both cockpits, low-profile head-up displays, digital video and data recorders, and a new helmet-mounted display.
The light-attack version will get those upgrades, as well as an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and a data link with weapons, enabling it to be equipped with advanced, longer-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles.
Wide-area displays are becoming standard on combat aircraft, with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen having them fitted. A similar cockpit configuration is being developed for the Eurofighter Typhoon.
“Fighters are changing, and the operational environment is changing, so trainers need to respond to the new operational scenarios,” said Tommaso Pani, Leonardo Aircraft's senior vice president for marketing and strategic campaigns, at the Royal International Air Tattoo.
Development of the M-346 upgrade has already begun. Leonardo is planning to start integration in laboratory tests during 2025 and begin modification of the two prototypes available to the company—one in the Fighter Attack (M-346FA) configuration, the other in the Advanced Jet Trainer configuration—toward the end of that year.
The Blk. 20 configuration will then become the production standard later in the decade, although where that will cut in is undecided, said Dario Marfe, Leonardo Aircraft’s senior vice president for commercial, customer services and training and proprietary programs business. The company is in discussions with potential customers on when would be best for Blk. 20 production to begin, Marfe told Aviation Week.
Leonardo executives say they expect to have delivered more than 100 M-346 in the current configuration before Blk. 20 production begins, but also plan to offer a retrofit of the new capabilities for those earlier aircraft.
“We want to make sure that is possible, to keep the state-of-the-art capabilities in all the aircraft, so they are not left aside in a few years’ time,” Marfe said.
Leonardo will also enhance ground-based functions for the aircraft, as well as the ability to use augmented reality inflight through the helmet-mounted display, rendering aerial threats to support close-in aerial combat training.
While Leonardo says it is not targeting the Blk. 20 capabilities for any particular customer or requirement, it is aiming the M-346 at several U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy requirements, including the latter’s Undergraduate Jet Training System need. Leonardo signed agreements with Airbus at last year’s Paris Air Show that would see the two companies jointly offering the M-346 to Airbus’ home nations France, Germany and Spain, all of which are likely to need new advanced jet trainers in the coming years.
Spain's need is particularly pressing as it manages an aging Northrop SF-5 fleet. Madrid is expected to come out with requirements for an advanced trainer in the near future, Pani said.
Marfe said M-346 operators have become confident in the current platform with several nations now downloading training from frontline aircraft types—so-called operational conversion unit training—allowing pilots to transition straight to frontline squadrons. Leonardo claims that some customers have seen a 50% reduction in their fast-jet training operating costs because of the ability to download training from more expensive frontline combat aircraft types.
Leonardo sees the Blk. 20 upgrade as low-risk because it will not touch the airframe, safety-critical systems or engines. Nor will it be the last upgrade—management is targeting a program of “continuous enhancement” to the aircraft.
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