Leonardo unveils new unmanned platform and new technologies

Leonardo unveiled its new unmanned platform – the latest entry in the Falco family – during the Paris Air Show on 17th June in the Leonardo static area.

Paris will also be the first opportunity for guests to seethe AWHERO unmanned rotorcraft in its pre-production configuration with theLeonardo Gabbiano Ultra-Light radar installed on-board.

In the training environment, Leonardo is now able to offeraccess to five training academies, the International Flight Training School(IFTS) in partnership with the Italian Air Force, and a unique range oftraining aircraft and helicopters. More than 10,000 helicopter pilots andoperators were trained at the company’s schools in 2018 and the deployment ofthree additional M-346 aircraft to the IFTS is another milestone for theinstitution. The new M-345 also makes its debut at the show, pitched to replacethe current fleet of basic trainers in-service around the world. The ItalianAir Force has ordered 18 M-345s.

Leonardo continues to invest is its combat aircraftportfolio, which includes proprietary products as the M-346 FA (Fighter Attack)equipped with the company’s Grifo-346 radar. The M-346 FA is a low-costtactical solution for the modern battlefield, as it offers all the M-346'sAdvanced Jet Trainer features as well as being able to perform close airsupport missions, battlefield air interdiction, homeland security, and airpolicing missions and tactical reconnaissance, as well as providing support forpersonnel recovery operations in contested areas. In addition, guests will havea chance to see the Eurofighter Typhoon flying at the show.

In the last few months of Leonardo’s helicopter business theU.S. Air Force has selected the MH-139 with Boeing as prime contractor, and thecompany has won a contract award from Poland for the AW101 for anti-submarineand CSAR duties. In Paris, Leonardo will be exhibiting its AW139, outfitted ina public-utility configuration.

In a recent success, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza ordered 22AW169Ms from Leonardo for law enforcement. Customers who have procured Leonardohelicopters also have access to the latest technologies in training andservices including virtual reality tools and data-driven flight diagnostics,both on show to visitors at Paris.

New for the show, the MAIR (Multi-Aperture Infra-Red) systemwill be exhibited for the first time. The Company’s Skyward IRST will also bepresent, alongside the Miysis Directed InfraRed CounterMeasure (DIRCM) andBriteCloud expendable active decoy, which are latest-generation aircraftprotection from InfraRed (IR) and Radio Frequency (RF) threats respectively.

In the static area there will be a model of asecond-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellite, Italy’s most ambitious spaceprogramme in the field of Earth observation. This satellite is expected to belaunched at the end of 2019. In partnership with the Italian Space Agency(ASI), Leonardo will also be revealing the first pictures from the PRISMAsatellite, which is taking hyperspectral images of the Earth.