Lead-In Fighter trainer
Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica company, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence of Poland to supply eight M-346 Master, with deliveries to begin in 2016 for. The contract – 27 February 2014 signed after the aircraft was selected, was worth EUR 280 million. In addition to the eight aircraft, the provision also includes logistic support, a training programme for pilots and engineers and a ground-based training system with dedicated classrooms and educational materials.
After Italy, Singapore and Israel, Poland was the fourth customer to order the M-346, considered the most advanced/lead-in fighter trainer aircraft currently available on the market and the only new-generation trainer specifically designed to train pilots to fly high-performance latest generation military aircraft. The Polish contract raised the number of M-346 aircraft ordered to date to 56.
The Italian aircraft won the Polish contract against international competitors. In June 2011 the Polish defence ministry issued a request for proposals to five manufacturers interested in competing for its 16 aircraft Lead-In Fighter trainer contract. The contenders are Alenia Aermacchi, with the M-346 Master; BAE Systems offering the Hawk AJT; Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin with the T-50P [the only supersonic aircraft in the tender]; Aero Vodochody with the L-159T1; and Finnish firm Patria, offering ex-Finnish air force Hawk Mk51/51As.
The Polish aviation company PZL "Warszawa-Okecie", which previously designed and manufactured such aircraft for domestic and international customers, is presently owned by EADS, and has not produced such aircraft since a handful of PZL I-22 Iryda were built for the Polish Air Force in the 1990s. Russia is an obvious non-contender in this competition with their Yak-130, given its history in Poland.
Aircraft must be equipped with a fly-by-wire flight-control system as well as long-range radar and possess anti-jamming capabilities. They should be also capable of carrying Mk82 bombs and laser-guided Paveway IIs. Deliveries were to be made in two batches. The first eight aircraft were to be in a training configuration for the Polish Air Force 4th Training Wing by 30 November 2014. The second batch, with full training and combat capabilities, was to arrive by late 2016. The first eight were then to be upgraded to full combat status, giving them a light attack which would help offset the loss of the Su-22 Fitters.
In October 2011 Poland paused the 1.45 billion zloty ($456 million) training-combat aircraft tender, by which time Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi were the only remaining bidders. The companies from Finland and the Czech Republic had pulled out, as had BAE Systems, which indicated that Warsaw would need to decide between a trainer or a combat jet. The ministry planned a new tender focusing solely on the jets’ training capabilities.Deputy Defense Minister Marcin Idzik said "Poland cannot be the sole country to acquire such an [aircraft]" that is, a dual-use ground attack and trainer aircraft.
The M-346 has low acquisition and operation costs and adopts innovative design solutions: it is an aircraft with full authority quadruplex Fly-by-Wire control system that, thanks to the optimization of the aerodynamic configuration, allows it to remain fully controllable at angles of attack of over 30 degrees. This, combined with the twin-engine configuration, the duplication and redundancy of the electric and hydraulic system and the choice of state-of-the-art equipment, makes the M-346 the most modern pre-operational tactical training aircraft in the world.
The M-346 is equipped with a digital avionic system, fully modeled on those of new generation military aircraft such as the F-16 Block 52+ currently in service with the Polish Air Force, and is well-suited for every phase of advanced and pre-operational training, enabling fewer required flight hours on the more expensive frontline aircraft.
The M-346 integrates the ETTS (Embedded Tactical Training Simulation), a function that has the ability to simulate a complete suite of sensors, countermeasures and armaments, and also to create a virtual tactical scenario, simulating air, naval and land forces, enemy or friend, interacting in real time with the aircraft during the training missions.
Alenia Aermacchi’s Integrated Training System (ITS) includes, together with the M-346, an exhaustive Ground Based Training System (GBTS), enabling student pilots to learn and rehearse the entire aircraft syllabus and all training objectives on the ground, before replicating them in flight.
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