Leonardo Unveils New Training Cockpit

Leonardo has continued its development of the Block 20 standard of the M-346 lead-in trainer / light combat aircraft with the unveiling of the new cockpit featuring a large area display. The status of the development of the new full-scale human-machine interface (HMI) was officially presented during Military Flight Training 2025 in Italy (31 March-2 April).

Developed in the framework of the Block 20’s overall capability enhancement effort, officially launched at Farnborough Air Show in July 2024, the new cockpit’s main characteristics include a single 20x8 inch NVG-compatible full touch high resolution display, multiply-redundant architectural design for display, core electronics and power units, a multicore processor allowing significant computational power growth potential, latest certification standards and a significant rationalization of several control panels. The Block 20 standard cockpit will feature two large area displays, one per each seat, replacing the existing six multi-functional displays, plus a low profile head-up display. These will be combined with a new digital video and data recorder and a new augmented reality helmet mounted display.

The new HMI has been designed with increased situational awareness/low crew workload principle in mind, delivering enhanced look & feel and immersive environment, and increased effectiveness and safety for advanced training purposes – including multi-asset cooperative training - as pilots transition to operational duties or to the next generation. Also, it allows to maximize the benefits from the M-346 multirole light combat variant in terms of intuitive and rapid mission systems, and sensor information access and management, weapon system management, greater all-weather tolerance, data gathering, analysis, exploitation and sharing scenarios increasingly requiring digital connectivity and interoperability.

The new cockpit, subject to further refinements, will be installed onto a M-346 Block 20 prototype by mid-2027, with its final design expected to be available on a production aircraft for a launch customer by the end of 2028.

The M-346 Block 20 will also benefit from new navigation, weapon management, flight management system, IFF - Identification of Friend or Foe - transponder. Specifically, for the M-346 F variant, further critical capability enhancements include an AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar featuring fire control radar capability, integration of new weapons for both air-to-air and air-to-ground roles, in addition to a built-in missile datalink.