Breaking news
Acceptance of the first T-346A advanced fighter trainer aicraft for the Italian Air Force completed 2011112.
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World
Aviation Industry News - General Dynamics |
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Acceptance of the first T-346A advanced fighter trainer aicraft for the
Italian Air Force completed. |
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The
General Directorate of Air Armaments (DGAA) in Rome was the venue for
the acceptance ceremony for the T-346A, the first aircraft of the M-346
series, built by Alenia Aermacchi (a Finmeccanica company). |
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 T-346A advanced fighter trainer aicraft |
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| The
official documents were signed after intensive checks carried out in a
constructive and proactive manner at the Alenia Aermacchi plant in Venegono
by the Testing Commission appointed for this purpose by the DGAA. At the
end of this period, acceptance flights were conducted in order to confirm
that all its systems would function in day-to-day operations, and two
final acceptance flights were completed by pilots from the Italian Air
Force’s Flight Test Unit. "The acceptance of the first aircraft in the M-346 series, which will very soon be in service with the Italian Air Force, testifies to the success of Italian high-tech industry and represents the achievement of an undoubtedly important objective thanks to the efforts of all who work at Alenia Aermacchi”, said Giuseppe Giordo, CEO of Alenia Aeronautica and Alenia Aermacchi, and head of Finmeccanica’s Aeronautics division. “This handover highlights our longstanding and constructive collaboration, going back many years, with the Air Force. We are also proud to be able to supply the pilots of our country’s air force, who are among the best-trained in the world, with a next-generation trainer”. The first T-346A, to be followed shortly by a second, will initially be assigned to the Flight Test Unit at the Pratica di Mare air base, where it will undergo operational tests. The Air Force will take delivery of the other four aircraft and the associated ground-based training system by 2012, thus becoming the first air force in the world to have the use of a training line based on the M-346, the most modern aircraft currently on the market for training the military pilots of next-generation defence aircraft. The contract, worth EUR 220 million, for the purchase by the air force of a first batch of six M-346 aircraft and a ground-based training system, was signed at the end of 2009, and the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 trainer received its military type certificate from the Italian Ministry of Defence’s certification office in June 2011. Such approval is an indispensable requirement if the aircraft is to be used in military operations. |
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 M346 advanced trainfer fighter aicraft |
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M-346 background
The
M-346 is the most Advanced/Lead-In Fighter trainer available on the market
today, and the only one in the world designed to train pilots for next-generation,
high-performance military aircraft. The advanced design solutions provide
also high safety standards and reduced acquisition and operational costs.
The M-346 embodies the latest “design-to-cost” and “design-to-maintain”
concepts, with avionics modelled upon those of new generation military
aircraft such as Eurofighter, Gripen, Rafale, F-16, F-18, F-22 and the
future JSF. |
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