Within the framework of the state visit of President Ilham Aliyev to Italy, a declaration on an agreement between Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense and Leonardo S.p.A aerospace company was signed in connection with the acquisition of an integration system for (15) Alenia Aermacchi M-346 aircraft.
Preciously Azerbaijan purchased 10 advanced “M-346 Master” aircraft from Italy,
The document was signed by Minister of Defense, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov and CEO of Italian Leonardo S.p.A company Alessandro Profumo
By purchasing Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master planes from Italy, Azerbaijan will be able to train fifth-generation fighter pilots, military expert Shair Ramaldanov told.
M-346 Master is a military twin-engine transonic trainer aircraft. Originally co-developed with Yakovlev as the Yak/AEM-130, the partnership was dissolved in 2000 and Alenia Aermacchi proceeded to separately develop the M-346 Master, while Yakolev continued work on the Yakovlev Yak-130. The first flight of the M-346 was performed in 2004. Since 2016 the manufacturer became Leonardo-Finmeccanica as Alenia Aermacchi merged into the new Finmeccanica, finally rebranded as Leonardo in 2017.
The M-346 is used by the air forces of Italy, Israel, Singapore, and Poland as a combat training aircraft.
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