A ‘ready-now’ solution: Textron unveils variant of Italian Aermacchi M-346 for US Navy training jet
July 31, 2025
Textron is now offering a version of Leonardo’s Aermacchi M-346 jet trainer for the United States Navy. The Navy can now select between four different advanced jet trainers offered by partnerships of US and foreign companies.
Textron offers Italian M-346 jet trainer to US Navy
Textron Aviation Defense announced on the 28th of July that it is offering its Beechcraft M-346N jet for the US Navy’s Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) programme. Textron is one of the major North American aerospace companies and currently manufactures Cessna and Beechcraft aircraft for military and civilian use.
The announcement is in response to the Navy’s forthcoming Request for Proposals for a new training aircraft. The service is expected to sign the contract for the next-generation trainer in 2027. The programme is mostly focused on replacing the Navy’s ageing fleet of McDonnell Douglas T-45C Goshawk jet trainers based on the BAE Systems Hawk.
Textron says its Beechcraft M-346N aircraft is a “ready-now” solution. The aircraft is based on the Italian Aermacchi (rebranded as Leonardo in 2017) M-346 Master family of twin-engine advanced transonic jet trainers that can also serve in light combat roles.
Other competitors for the programme include Boeing with its Boeing-Saab T-7 Red Hawk, developed for the Air Force, and Lockheed Martin with the TF-50 based on the South Korean KAI Golden Eagle.
Additionally, Sierra Nevada Corporation has shown a rendering of a Naval version of its Freedom jet trainer that it is developing in partnership with Turkish Aerospace Industries. It seems no matter which aircraft the Navy chooses, it will have significant foreign DNA.
After some delays, Boeing has now moved on to assembling the first batch of T-7 Red Hawks for the Air Force.
Beechcraft M-346N’s advanced training capabilities
The M-346N is a twin-engine, tandem-seat aircraft with fully digital flight controls and avionics. It comes with Head-Up Display and Large Area Display in each of its cockpits. It is equipped with a fly-by-wire flight control system featuring quadruple redundancy. Another safety feature is its Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS).
It is powered by two Honeywell F124-GA-200 turbofans and comes with a service ceiling of 45,000 feet and a max cruise speed of over 590 knots. The jet’s adaptive training is also powered by Artificial Intelligence that analyzes the student’s performance and provides tailored learning paths for that pilot.
The Beechcraft M-346N “leverages the operationally-proven Embedded Training System avionics suite for basic to advanced tactical training, emulating sensors, weapons, and Computer Generated Forces.”
Textron says this enables students to interact in real-time through a Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training architecture that links aircraft in flight (Live), simulators (Virtual), and computer-generated friendly and adversary forces (Constructive)
Italy’s leading advanced jet trainer
The M-346 originally began as a joint design effort with Russia’s Yakovlev. The partnership fell apart in 2000, with Yakovlev going on to develop the Yak-130 and Alenia Aermacchi developing the M-346.
Today, more than 100 Leonardo M-346 have been delivered to air forces in Italy, Israel, Singapore, Greece, Qatar, Turkmenistan, and Poland. Nigeria and Austria have also ordered the aircraft and it is being considered by various other nations.
Textron states the aircraft is “already meeting the demanding student pilot training needs for 4th and 5th generation air forces worldwide.” It adds that the aircraft can be the “cornerstone” for the US Navy and Marine Corps undergraduate jet training. The company asserts it effectively bridges basic instruction and the “high-performance world of carrier-based fighter operations.”
