The Italian Ministry of Defense signed contracts with Leonardo for the acquisition of its new M-345 jet trainer and a new assault helicopter set to replace the \u00a0A129 Mangusta.
The Williams FJ44-4M-34 engine on the aircraft offers 3,400 pounds of thrust, and has been touted by Leonardo officials as contributing to the aircraft’s low life cycle cost, similar to or lower than a turbo prop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The firm, which believes it can sell 200 M-345s around the world, will be using life cycle stats to try to woo turbo prop trainer customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second contract signed is for a new assault helicopter being developed to replace Italy\u2019s long serving A129 Mangusta helicopter, built by Leonardo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dubbed the “new exploration and escort helicopter” (NEES) the contract covers the study, development, industrialization, production and testing of a prototype and three initial production aircraft, the firm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October, the military submitted plans to parliament to spend 487 million euros on a prototype, three pre-series aircraft and one initial operating capability level aircraft, as well as the later upgrade of the three pre-series versions to IOC level, all by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its statement, Leonardo said: “Through this new program, based on a total requirement for 48 units, the Italian Army will be able to replace the current fleet of AW129 which are expected to be retired from service by 2025 following over 35 years in operations,” the firm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Designed to fly three hour missions, the new aircraft will offer a 20 mm cannon, 70 mm rockets and Spike air to ground missiles, with a 1,400 kg payload that may rise to 1,600 kg according to the documents sent to parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Mangusta would also feature satellite communications and Link 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army currently has 48 Mangustas flying, of which 32 have been upgraded from the original spec, while 16 are used for training. The helicopter was flown in Afghanistan and a spin-off, the T-129, was developed for service with Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The company will supply the Italian Ministry of Defense new M-345 jet trainers and new assault helicopter, replacing the A129 Mangusta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":26,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,46,11,14,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3345],"class_list":["post-57723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-europe","category-global","category-land","category-training-sim"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ABQCLTX7RRAFXDAHTHEJZHUSB4","arc_canonical_url":"\/training-sim\/2017\/01\/14\/leonardo-lands-532-million-in-trainer-helo-contracts\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n