Leonardo has recently achieved advances in its helicopter business, consolidated its electronics activities, created a cybersecurity division, and rapidly expanded its commercial presence around the world, featuring new offices across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. This week during the Paris Air Show, Leonardo will maintain its drive for innovation, capabilities, and autonomous forms of transport by unveiling series-production versions of the new M-345 trainer and its new unmanned platform and the latest in the Falco family, the AWHERO rotorcraft.
Leonardo’s focus on training has resulted in the ability to offer access to five training academies, the International Flight Training School (IFTS) in partnership with the Italian Air Force, and a wide range of training aircraft and helicopters. IFTS hosts a total fleet of 21 aircraft and the company’s schools trained more than 10,000 helicopter pilots and operators in 2018.
The new M-345, making its debut at the show, has been pitched to replace the current fleet of basic trainers in-service, offering higher performance at an affordable cost. Further investments made by Leonardo include its combat aircraft portfolio, featuring the M-346 Fighter Attack (FA) equipped with the company’s Grifo-346 radar.
According to Leonardo (Chalet 244), the FA is an effective and low-cost tactical solution for the battlefield, as it offers the Advanced Jet Trainer features of the M-346 while performing close air support missions, battlefield air interdiction, homeland security and air policing missions and tactical reconnaissance, and support for personnel recovery operations in contested areas.
Notable achievements have also been made recently for Leonardo’s helicopter business, with the U.S. Air Force selecting the MH-139, with Boeing as prime contractor, and a contract award from Poland for the AW101 for anti-submarine and CSAR duties.
Leonardo’s strategic approach to its portfolio is dual-use products; applying this to the company’s unmanned systems allows government operators to execute a wide range of missions at a significantly reduced price, all while maintaining safety and performance levels. Also on display this week in Paris are virtual reality tools and data-driven flight diagnostics, both of which are accessible to Leonardo customers in training and services.
In addition to the new M-345 and AWHERO rotorcraft, Leonardo is also be debuting the Multi-Aperture Infra-Red system, a threat-warning system for aircraft providing full spherical protection, this week in Paris. Also present will be the company’s Skyward InfraRed Search and Track, alongside the Miysis Directed InfraRed CounterMeasure and BriteCloud expendable active decoy (the latest aircraft protection from InfraRed and Radio Frequency, respectively).
Beyond aircraft, Paris Air Show guests will be able to peer in the possibilities offered by Leonardo’s space capabilities. A model of a second-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellite will be in the static area, representing an ambitious leap forward in terms of technology, performance, and operational life. It is expected to launch at the end of 2019.
In partnership with the Italian Space Agency, Leonardo is revealing the first pictures from the PRISMA satellite—hyperspectral images that allow researchers and the public alike to view the Earth as never before—this week in Paris.