Leonardo is open to its M-346 undergoing final assembly in the UK should the type gain selection as a replacement for the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) BAE Systems Hawk T1 and T2 fleets, a senior official at the Italian airframer says.

“We see the M-346 as a logical solution for the UK,” says Leonardo Aircraft senior vice-president marketing & sales Tommaso Pani, who notes that some RAF student pilots already are flying the type at the International Flight Training School at Decimomannu air base in Sardinia.

“We have a solution that can meet the urgent requirement, given that the M-346 is already in service and can be delivered in a short time,” he told FlightGlobal at the DSEI show in London on 10 September.

“We are looking to have industrial cooperation in the UK – we understand that it is important to have an aircraft that should be ‘British’ enough to fly with the British flag,” he notes. “We have contact with several industries in the UK, and we are totally open to set up solid, pragmatic industrial cooperation.” He notes that Leonardo’s supply chain for the jet already includes several UK suppliers.

Pani says Leonardo views BAE as “our logical partner”, adding: “I cannot see a different key partner”, pointing to their cooperation within the Eurofighter consortium, and the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).

BAE chief executive Charles Woodburn in late July declined to comment on the company’s possible approach to the Hawk replacement need, after suggestions that it was eyeing a possible joint venture agreement with US airframer Boeing.

“We are ready to set up industrial activities of value – production, assembly, maintenance, delivery,” he adds. “The number of aircraft the RAF is looking for should justify the setting up of a final assembly line, and we can have a delivery centre in the UK.”

The UK has yet to launch a competition to replace the RAF’s Hawk T2 trainers and older T1-model examples flown by its Red Arrows aerobatic display team, but the requirement was detailed in its Strategic Defence Review publication earlier this year. Once combined, those fleets total around 40 airframes.

He quips that with the M-346 already on order to replace the Aermacchi MB-339s flown by the Italian air force’s Frecce Tricolori display team, that for use by the Red Arrows, “we have just to change the green [smoke] to blue”.

Industry sources indicate that a competitive process is likely to commence during 2026 – further details are likely to emerge within a Defence Investment Plan now expected to be issued before the end of this year.

“We are offering a European platform to a European country,” Pani notes.

Other contenders for the requirement are expected to include the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk, Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace ­Industries T-50 – a model of which is being displayed on the US airframer’s stand at DSEI depicted in Red Arrows colours, the Turkish Aerospace Hurjet, and UK start-up Aeralis’s modular trainer design.

Leonardo earlier this year outlined its ambition to see the M-346 operated by all three nations involved in the GCAP endeavour, through which Italy, Japan and the UK plan to field a sixth-generation fighter by 2035.

Leonardo’s exhibit at DSEI includes a cockpit simulator for its enhanced Block 20-standard version of the twin-engined type, which is due to achieve service entry later this decade.