Italy’s Frecce Tricolori aerobatic display team is to be re-equipped with a new fleet of Leonardo M-346 jet trainers, with the type to replace its veteran Aermacchi MB-339s.
The decision was announced at Istrana air base on 12 September, as the team returned from a display tour of the USA, with an M-346 exhibited in its distinctive livery.
Leonardo says that via its selection, Rome is “taking the Frecce Tricolori into a new era with a latest-generation aircraft featuring fully digital flight controls and avionics, a fly-by-wire flight control system with quadruple redundancy, and a highly advanced human-machine Interface”.
The company adds that it will produce the new display jets to meet the “specific requirements of the Italian air force”.
Further details, including the number of aircraft to be supplied, and an expected delivery timeline, have not been disclosed.
Italy already operates 18 locally-named T-346As in the advanced/lead-in fighter training role, along with 10 examples which are assigned to the air force/Leonardo-run International Flight Training School at Decimomannu air base in Sardinia.
Leonardo says it has to date sold 126 M-346s, with its customers being Greece, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, Poland, Qatar, Singapore and Turkmenistan.
Cirium fleets data shows that the service still has 49 MB-339s in operational use. Of those, 23 are A-model examples aged between 33 and 44 years, while the remaining 26 are C-version jets aged 21-27 years.
Leonardo and the air force had previously also considered the company’s smaller M-345 as a potential future airframe for the Frecce Tricolori.
