Alenia Aermacchi (Outdoor Exhibit 1) delivered the first two M-346 advanced trainers to the Israel Air and Space Force last week. The two aircraft were ferried from Alenia Aermacchi’s factory at Varese-Venegono, northwest of Milan, to their new home at the Hatzerim air base near Be’er Sheva in the Negev desert. Upon receipt of the aircraft, Israel became the third nation to operate the M-346, after Italy and Singapore.

Israel selected the M-346 in February 2012 to replace its elderly McDonnell Douglas A-4N, TA-4H and TA-4J Skyhawks of the 102 “The Flying Tigers” Squadron, which are operated in the advanced training and fighter lead-in roles. Contract signature for 30 aircraft was finalized on July 19 of that year, by which time Israel had announced that it would name the aircraft “Lavi” in IASF service.

The first M-346 Lavi rolled out at Venegono in March. In addition to the two delivered, a further six Lavis are in the final assembly process and component assembly has started on another five aircraft. All 30 are due for delivery to Hatzerim by the end of 2016. As well as the aircraft, the IAF is receiving related ground-based training systems.

When deliveries of all the M-346s have been made, the IASF will have completed a major overhaul of its training fleet. Primary training is undertaken on the Grob G-120A-I Snunit, of which 17 were procured, while basic training is handled by the Textron Beechcraft T-6A Efroni (Texan II). Twenty T-6As were delivered from July 2009 to allow the retirement of the IAI Tzukit, an upgraded version of the Fouga Magister.