FARNBOROUGH, England—Leonardo will seek British industrial links to support a planned M‑346 bid for an emerging British jet trainer competition, newly appointed CEO Lorenzo Mariani told Aviation Week.
“We need a British partner,” he said in the interview at the
Farnborough Airshow.
Leonardo already has strong industrial ties in the UK with its helicopter and defense electronics operations, but it is looking to bring on more local industrial firepower given London’s apparent interest in using any deal for job creation.
“The only way to do it is not to behave as a pure exporter,” Mariani said, pointing to the UK government’s
recently released Defense Investment Plan that underscored the desire to use modernization programs to support the country’s workforce.
How the partnership would be structured and whether Leonardo would assemble the M‑346 on UK soil has not yet been settled. Mariani noted that there are many elements to the jet trainer program, including synthetic training aspects, that could offer partnership opportunities.
The British government has not yet spelled out the exact requirements or acquisition strategy for the endeavor to replace the BAE Systems Hawk T2 used for advanced training and the Hawk T1 used by the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows aerobatic team.
Leonardo is poised to face stiff competition with
Boeing, BAE Systems and Saab teamed to offer the T-7. The field also will likely include Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries with the T-50, SNC with the Freedom and Turkish Aerospace with its Hurjet.
