►Leonardo: strategic agreements with Slovak Defence Industry
4 September 2023 – In a ceremony held during the last weekend at 2023 edition of Slovak International Air Fest (SIAF), at the presence of the Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic, Martin Sklenár, the State Secretary of Defence, Marian Majer and Ambassador of Italy to the Slovak Republic, H.E. Catherine Flumiani, Leonardo signed some strategic agreements with Slovak defence industries, LOTN and Virtual Reality Media (VRM) in Trencin and Slavia Production System in Detva, consolidating the perspectives to generate a wide industrial return both for the Slovak Defence and civil industry.
“Leonardo pursues worldwide the local cooperation adopting a business model aimed to foster adequate synergy with local industries on long term partnership and value chain development and is able to prospect Slovakia the most advanced and effective solution in terms of response to their defense needs”, said Corrado Falco, Senior Vice President International Business Development at Leonardo.
Leonardo is very proud to have shown at SIAF the M-345 Tactical Trainer simulator, one of the excellence in terms of training and simulation technologies. The Integrated Training system as well as the other products and services offered by Leonardo leverage on the proven know-how which has been matured delivering, supporting and designing the most advanced military aircraft such as the Eurofighter and the JSF, while working already on next generation systems.”
This technological osmosis is a plus that few companies may offer in Europe and a crucial discriminant in the long term considering the modern scenario. Leonardo might represent a partner of choice for the Slovak Defence assuring the full coverage of current and future potential national requirements.
The quality and effectiveness of military pilots is as much as important as to rely on the most performing and advanced defence aircraft. With Slovakia’s generational jump to a new fleet of fighter aircraft, the M-345 integrated training systems and services provided by Leonardo are the best solution to assure highly trained pilots for the Air Force.
Leonardo’s business approach is well driven by local content maximization to pave the way for collaborations with the Slovak Industry. With the Falco EVO programme, Leonardo has adopted a well-established commercial approach, based on partnering with customers and end-users to deliver full life-cycle solutions through extended cooperation with national industries in customer countries.
Leonardo can boast a significant international heritage in the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) design, manufacturing and operations, thanks to more than 70 years’ experience in developing and manufacturing a wide range of uncrewed platforms including aerial targets, mini UAVs, Heavy Tactical and MALE systems.
Note to editors
Leonardo is today a leading global player developing multi-domain capabilities in the Aerospace, Defence and Security sector. With 51,000 employees worldwide, it operates in the fields of Helicopters, Electronics, Aircraft, Cyber & Security and Space, and is a key partner in major international programmes including Eurofighter, GCAP and Eurodrone. Innovation, continuous research, digital manufacturing and sustainability are the cornerstones of Leonardo’s business worldwide, together with a business model very open to the cooperation with local defense industry of its customer nations.
The M-345 is a latest generation, fully digitally designed trainer aircraft conceived for basic through to advanced training of military pilots, equipped with modern avionics and characterized by operating costs comparable to those of a high-powered turboprop trainer. Derived by the proven experience in the M-346 programme, the avionics of the M-345 include a state-of-the-art man-machine interface, while the Embedded Tactical Training System (ETTS) permits reproduction of highly complex tactical scenarios during training flights. The aircraft is the central element of an Integrated Training System that can leverage on the advanced “Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC)” technology, designed to allow students to interact, through the simulator, with pilots in flight within the same training mission. This enables the simulated environment and real aircraft to merge. The instructor on the ground can add other constructive elements, reproducing ‘friends’ and/or ‘enemies’ in a simulated operational scenario. This makes for highly effective pilot training, saving flight hours that would otherwise have to be flown onboard operational conversion aircraft, with a consequent increase in costs.
Today, the M-346 is the backbone of the Italian Air Force-Leonardo “International Flight Training School (IFTS)” chosen by Japan, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Austria, Canada and UK to train their pilots for the advanced/lead-in-fighter (LIFT) phase. The recently announced agreement between Leonardo and Airbus, centered on the M-346, confirmed this system as the benchmark for the market and a continuously evolving program towards the most advanced technologies for decades to come.
Falco EVO is the Leonardo unmanned solution for tactical Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR). Its integrated architecture and sensors ensure networked capability, complete tactical situational awareness and interoperability with any other operational environment. The Falco family also includes ASTORE, the weaponized system based on Falco EVO proven platform.
Falco EVO represents a valuable excellence through its main core features and is currently satisfactorily operated by several international customers, conducting flight operations in very different and harsh environments.
A powerful and scalable mission system completes Falco EVO solution, capable of correlating information from different sensors and disseminating in the tactical scenario, in support of strategic analyses and operational decisions according to the fast timing of crisis scenarios (Information Superiority).
