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World Defense & Security News - Netherlands
 
 
Royal Netherlands Air Force's pilots to train on Alenia Aermacchi M-346 trainer aircraft
 
The Royal Netherlands Air Force’s Pilots will train in Italy on Finmeccanica - Alenia Aermacchi’s jets in service with the Italian Air Force, thanks to the agreement that has been signed by the Chiefs of Staff of the two Air Forces in Milan last week that envisages the detachment of an instructor and two student pilots of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, to be stationed at ItAF's Lecca-Galatina AFB Flight School.
     

Alenia Aermacchi M-346 advanced trainer aircraft
(Credit: Finmeccanica)
     
It is the two countries’ intention that this first group of pilots represent the starting point for a fruitful cooperation to be extended for years to come.

The instructor and the two students will follow the standard training programmes of the Italian military pilots. The training system is already acknowledged and appreciated by other countries, which have sent their personnel to train at the Lecce-Galatina school.

In fact, the new training programme, recently reconfigured to catch up with operational and technological advances, thanks to the entry in service of the new Finmeccanica-Alenia’s M-346 trainers (called T-346 by the Italian Air Force), is evaluated with great interest by several air forces that plan to operate new-generation aircraft.


The M-346 trainer jet is powered by two Honeywell F124 engines, and uses a digital flight control system by Teleavio/Marconi in collaboration with BAE Systems, Dowty and Microtecnica. Alenia's M-346 can also perform combat missions thanks to its nine external store stations, capable of mounting up to 3,000 kilograms of external payload.