Further to Qatar and Germany, Japan has also chosen to send its military pilots to complete their operational training at the Italian Air Force’s and Leonardo’s International Flight Training School (IFTS).
Leonardo issued a press release informing that the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, General Alberto Rosso, and the Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), General Shunji Izutsu, signed today an important technical agreement on the training of Japanese military pilots.
Thanks to this agreement, the Japanese military pilots will take part in the advanced training courses (Phase IV) at International Flight Training School (IFTS). The IFTS is a joint project made by Italian Air Force and Leonardo, that includes also an industrial partnership between Leonardo and CAE for the maintenance/support of the aircraft fleet and simulators.
Japan’s interest in the training capabilities developed by the Italian Air Force was consolidated after a series of discussions and initiatives that culminated in a visit to the 61st Wing at Lecce-Galatina Air Force Base on September 2020. This was when a JASDF delegation was able to appreciate the excellence of the Italian Air Force’s training system, particularly the Integrated Training System developed by Leonardo and centered around the T-346A aircraft.
The newly signed technical arrangement enables a gradual increase in JASDF student pilot intake over the forthcoming years. In the future, Japanese instructors could be welcomed into the school to work side-by-side with Italian colleagues, in an approach that favours the exchange of experiences, the optimization and standardization of procedures, to benefit all the operators in the sector.
Japan is the third country, after Qatar and Germany, to choose the International Flight Training School (IFTS) for its pilots.
The project is intended to double today’s training offer by creating a new training center distributed between the bases of Galatina and Decimomannu, in Sardinia, where the new IFTS Campus is under construction. It will be a real flight academy capable of hosting students, technical staff and featuring accommodations as well as recreational areas, a cafeteria, sports facilities. Its logistic-maintenance infrastructures will assure the operations of the fleet of 22 M-346 (designated T-346A by the Italian Air Force) airplane fleet. An entire building will be home to the Ground Based Training System (GBTS), with classrooms and the installation of a modern training system based on the latest generation simulation devices.
