Textron Aviation Defense has teamed with Italy’s Leonardo to offer what it as prime contractor is calling the Beechcraft M-346N as a ‘ready-now’ solution for the US Navy’s Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) programme, the company announced on 28 July 2025.
The US Navy has already released a number of requests for information (RFIs) in relation to the UJTS programme, which is intended to replace the navy’s fleet of T-45 Goshawks. The T-45s were built by the then British Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas, based on the British Hawk advanced jet trainer, and entered service in 1991.
The Beechcraft M-346N is based on Leonardo’s M-346 advanced jet trainer, which was introduced into Italian service in 2015. As well as serving with the Italian Air Force/Leonardo International Flight Training School, the M-346 is now also in service with the air forces of Greece, Israel, Poland, Qatar, Singapore and Turkmenistan, and has been ordered by Austria and Nigeria.
The M-346 was also offered for the US Air Force’s T-X advanced jet trainer programme, which was ultimately won by the Boeing/Saab T-7 Red Tail.
Powered by two Honeywell F124-GA-200 turbofan engines that give a maximum cruise speed of more than 1,090 km/h and a service ceiling of 13,715 m, the M-346 is a tandem-seat trainer with fully digital flight controls and avionics. It is equipped with a fly-by-wire flight control system with quadruple redundancy, a latest-generation human-machine interface with head-up display and large area display in each cockpit, hands on throttle and stick (HOTAS) controls and safety features such as the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS). The aircraft itself forms part of an integrated training ecosystem that includes a live-virtual-constructive (LVC) training architecture that links aircraft in flight (live), simulators (virtual) and computer-generated friendly and adversary forces (constructive).
The M-346’s twin turbofans would be a safety improvement over the single Adour-based F405-RR-401 turbofan that powers the T-45.
While – unlike the Goshawk – the M-346N being offered by Textron and Leonardo is not adapted to perform carrier landings and take-offs, the latest UJTS RFI, issued by the US Navy on 31 March 2025, states that “the UJTS air vehicle will only be required to conduct Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) to wave off”. The navy has thus opted to avoid the additional costs of adapting a jet trainer with the additional of structural strengthening and the addition of an arrestor hook, instead relying on the increasing sophistication of simulation systems to prepare future US Navy and Marine Corps pilots for carrier-borne operations.
According to the navy’s latest RFI, a UJTS request for proposals is now expected by December 2025, with a contract award projected for January 2027.
