The new Frecce Tricolori planes and their new design, a work of Pininfarina

The Aeronautica Militare Italiana aerobatic patrol yesterday presented a new phase with some luxury aircraft and design.

The farewell of the Italian Air Force to its veteran AMX 'Ghibli' fighter aircraft
The four candidates of the Spanish Air Force to replace its old F-5/a>

Last year I already told you about this excellent training aircraft, with a maximum speed of 1,090 km/h, a range of 2,550 kilometres and highly advanced avionics, which allows pilots to be trained even for fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35.

The Italian Air Force has been operating the M-346 as an advanced trainer aircraft since 2015, with a fleet of 18 aircraft of the T-346A version, deliveries of which were completed in 2018.

In addition to Italy, the M-346 has also been selected as a training aircraft by Israel, Poland, Greece, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Qatar, Singapore and Turkmenistan.

As I pointed out here a few months ago, the M-346 is one of the Spanish Air Force's favorites to replace its F-5BMs, although lately it seems that for political reasons - due to the current Spanish government's affinity with the Turkish government - the chosen one could end up being the Turkish TAI Hürjet aircraft.

The Frecce Tricolori will debut their M-346s next year, probably with 10 aircraft as until now. Currently, the Italian aerobatic patrol flies with the Aermacchi MB-339 PAN, an aircraft that began to be used in 1982 and that has been the longest-lived model of all those used by this patrol (the F-86E Sabre only lasted two years and the Fiat G.91 flew with the Frecce Tricolori from 1964 to 1981).

In addition to receiving some excellent new aircraft, the Frecce Tricolori will also have a new livery, designed by the prestigious Italian firm Pininfarina, famous throughout the world for its automotive designs. The firm has defined the new design as follows: "This livery is a perfect combination of elegance and power, traits that are characteristic of both Pininfarina and the National Aerobatic Team, embodying hard work, ingenuity, and teamwork, the core values of the Italian Air Force." You can watch the video released today by Pininfarina presenting the new design here:

And here is the video of Aeronautica Militare talking about the new planes of the Frecce Tricolori (the video is in Italian, you can activate the automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

+ UPDATED 14.9.2024 19:31h: Aeronautica Militare has published today a video showing the new livery of the Frecce Tricolori:

I confess that all this makes me very envious, since currently the Patrulla Águila, the aerobatic team of the Spanish Air Force, continues to fly old CASA C-101 Aviojet trainers that have almost reached the end of their operational life, without any replacement in sight, and without any option of being replaced by a Spanish-built aircraft. I wish the Patrulla Águila could also fly the M-346, because if we had to have a new aircraft that was not Spanish, the Italian model would be a thousand times preferable to a Turkish aircraft, as long as the C-101s do not end up giving way to the Swiss Pilatuso PC-21 turboprops, as has happened at the San Javier General Air Academy.

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Photos: Aeronautica Militare / Ministero Difesa / Leonardo.