Alenia Aermacchi and the Italian National Armaments Directorate sign agreement to jointly develop new jet trainer

Alenia Aermacchi and the Secretariat General of Defence/National Armaments Directorate of the Italian Ministry of Defence have signed an agreement to jointly define the operational specifications and collaborate on the development of a new basic-advanced trainer, the M-345 HET (High Efficiency Trainer) and expected to enter service between 2017-2020. The agreement, announced at the Le Bourget Paris Air Show, calls for the immediate creation of a joint working team between the Defence and industry to define the technical specifications of this new aircraft and identify the steps necessary for the preliminary study and its consequent development, taking into account the principles of cost effectiveness and to satisfy the possible requirements of the global market. The new HET will be a further development of the M-345 jet trainer, the latest solution proposed by Alenia Aermacchi for the basic-advanced phase of military pilot training.