M-346 jets inside the IFTS maintenance hangar at the Decimomannu Air Base, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
Italy’s biggest defence contractor, Leonardo SpA, has sold as many as 12 advanced jets to ITPS Canada, a private company that trains military and civilian pilots. The deal reflects the surging demand among NATO countries for new pilots as defence budgets climb.
ITPS agreed to purchase six M-346 twin-engine jets, with options for another six.
The price of the deal was not disclosed, but the planes typically sell for US$20-million to US$40-million apiece, depending on equipment options and other factors such as maintenance contracts and ground-based training in simulators.
Assuming a US$30-million price point and the purchase of the full complement of 12 planes, the sale would be valued at more than US$350-million.
Canadian aviator Major Brian Kilroy of the Royal Canadian Air Force aboard the M-346 aircraft.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The deal marks the M-346’s first foray in Canada. Leonardo, which is Europe’s second-biggest defence company, after Britain’s BAE Systems PLC, is also trying to sell the aircraft to the Royal Canadian Air Force. The M-346’s main competition for that contract is thought to be the Boeing-Saab T-7 Red Hawk, which is used by the United States Air Force.
The RCAF is in the market for an advanced lead-in fighter trainer – an aircraft whose student-pilot graduates would go on to fly the latest-generation fighter-bombers, including the Lockheed Martin F-35, the Saab Gripen and Eurofighter Typhoon. Canada has ordered 88 F-35s but has so far committed to take only 16 of them.
All of the RCAF’s lead-in fighter training is currently done outside Canada because the force lacks suitable aircraft.
ITPS will take delivery of the first M-346 in 2029. The company, which operates the International Tactical Training Centre (ITTC) for student pilots in North Bay, Ont., plans to use the aircraft to train pilots from NATO countries and its allies.
“As allied air forces look to expand training capacity and interoperability, the M-346 will help enable ITTC to welcome pilots from Canada and partner nations to train together in a modern and operationally focused environment,” chief executive officer David Lohse said in a statement.
Some 20 countries, including Canada, already train military pilots on M-346s at the International Flight Training School in Sardinia, Italy. The school, which uses an Italian air force base’s runways, is operated by Leonardo and Canada’s CAE Inc., the world’s biggest maker of flight simulators.
Of the 28 M-346s in the school’s fleet, four are owned by a CAE-Leonardo partnership. The two companies hope to clone the school, which currently has four Canadian student pilots and three Canadian instructors, in Canada and other countries.
ITPS was established in Britain in 1986 and later moved its primary base to London, Ont.’s airport. It has 28 aircraft, of which 16 are jet trainers, and also trains pilots on helicopters.
The company has 200 employees and was primarily built by Giorgio Clementi, a flight test engineer and former CEO who remains its executive chairman. He began his aviation career in South Africa in the 1980s.