Leonardo refutes Russian bones in M-346 trainer aircraft design

ROME — Italy’s Leonardo is talking up the European pedigree of its M-346 jet trainer after British newspapers claimed it was based on a Russian design.

British tabloids made the allegations after reports that the M-346 was being considered as a replacement for aging BAE Hawk T1 jets flown by the U.K.’s Red Arrows display team.

Leonardo worked jointly on the design of a jet trainer with Russian firm Yakovlev from 1993 to 2000 before the team-up was dissolved and each firm went on to produce their own trainers.

That did not stop the UK Sun newspaper reporting the M-346 was “Russian designed” in an article titled “Air Farce” on Monday. The daily quoted James Cartlidge, the defense spokesman for the UK’s Conservative opposition party saying, “When the Red Arrows perform their brilliant air displays, their red, white and blue vapor trails represent the Union Jack — not the Russian tricolor.”

As other tabloids picked up the story, British prime minister Keir Starmer was asked on Monday to guarantee that the Red Arrows’ next jet would not be designed by Russia.

“I can give you that guarantee – it’s very, very important that we don’t have Russian influence in Red Arrows or anything else for that matter,” said.

A spokesman for Starmer said there was no procurement plan in place to replace the Hawks.

Leonardo fought back, claiming, “The M-346 was designed, developed and produced in Europe to the most stringent NATO standards.” The Italian firm pointed out that pilots from around Europe, as well as the U.K., have already trained on the jet in Italy.

Aermacchi, the Italian jet trainer builder later purchased by Leonardo, racked up 300 flights while working on a prototype jet trainer with Russia’s Yakovlev.

But in 2000 the firms ended their collaboration when Yakovlev refused to consider using a U.S. Honeywell engine.

“There was a total disagreement – the Russians would not accept an American engine on a Russian military plane,” said Paolo Mezzanotte, who worked at Aermacchi at the time.

When the firms went their separate ways, Italy built the M-346 while Yakovlev built the Yak-130.

“The Russians went on to copy the Honeywell engine after the split, ironically producing it in Ukraine,” Mezzanotte said.

He said that the outside form of the two aircraft was similar, but the similarities stopped there.

“The manufacturing technology, the general systems, the mission systems, the propulsion and the flight control system on the M-346 is totally different. Italy did acquire the Yakovlev documentation about the plane but then redesigned it completely,” he said.

“Yakovlev had great engineers but their manufacturing at the time was at the level of Italian manufacturing in the 1950s,” he added.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——英国报纸声称其 M-346 喷气式教练机是基于俄罗斯设计之后，意大利莱昂纳多公司大力宣传其 M-346 喷气式教练机的欧洲血统。

英国小报在有报道称 M-346 正在被考虑用来替代英国红箭飞行表演队使用的老旧的 BAE Hawk T1 喷气式飞机后，提出了这些指控。

从 1993 年到 2000 年，莱昂纳多公司与俄罗斯雅科夫列夫公司合作设计喷气式教练机，之后双方解散，各自开始生产自己的教练机。

但这并未阻止英国《太阳报》周一发表题为《空中闹剧》的文章，报道称M-346是“俄罗斯设计的”。该报援引英国保守党国防事务发言人詹姆斯·卡特里奇的话说：“当红箭飞行表演队进行精彩的飞行表演时，他们留下的红、白、蓝三色尾迹代表的是英国国旗，而不是俄罗斯国旗。”

其他小报纷纷报道此事后，英国首相基尔·斯塔默周一被要求保证红箭飞行表演队的下一架喷气式飞机不会由俄罗斯设计。

“我可以向你保证——非常非常重要的是，我们不能让俄罗斯对红箭飞行表演队或其他任何事情产生影响，”他说。

斯塔默的发言人表示，目前还没有采购计划来取代老鹰队。

莱昂纳多公司反驳称：“M-346战斗机是在欧洲按照最严格的北约标准设计、研发和生产的。”这家意大利公司指出，来自欧洲各地以及英国的飞行员已经在意大利接受过该型喷气式飞机的训练。

意大利喷气式教练机制造商 Aermacchi（后被 Leonardo 收购）在与俄罗斯雅科夫列夫公司合作研发原型喷气式教练机期间，累计飞行了 300 次。

但到了 2000 年，雅科夫列夫拒绝考虑使用美国霍尼韦尔发动机，两家公司结束了合作。

“双方完全意见不合——俄罗斯人不会接受在俄罗斯军用飞机上使用美国发动机，”当时在 Aermacchi 工作的 Paolo Mezzanotte 说。

当两家公司分道扬镳后，意大利制造了M-346，而雅科夫列夫制造了雅克-130。

“分裂之后，俄罗斯人继续仿制霍尼韦尔发动机，讽刺的是，他们是在乌克兰生产的，”梅扎诺特说。

他说，两架飞机的外形相似，但相似之处仅限于此。

他说：“M-346的制造技术、通用系统、任务系统、推进系统和飞行控制系统都完全不同。意大利确实获得了雅科夫列夫关于该飞机的资料，但随后对其进行了彻底的重新设计。”

“雅科夫列夫拥有优秀的工程师，但他们当时的制造水平只相当于上世纪 50 年代的意大利制造水平，”他补充道。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。