The Italian Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to fund new multi-year programmes for the development of three Leonardo MC-27J Praetorian special operations aircraft and the acquisition of two new Boeing KC-767 strategic transport/tanker aircraft for the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana: AMI).
According to the country's latest multi-year planning document (Documento Programmatico Pluriennale: DPP) for 2021–23, released on 5 August, the AMI will likely secure initial funding for these two strategic requirements, which have been lingering in the pipeline for quite some time.
The DPP funds EUR80 million (USD94.3 million) between 2021 and 2026 for the MC-27J Praetorian development programme and mentions a requirement for three aircraft in the special operations configuration. However, the overall budget requirement amounts to EUR99 million, leaving EUR19 million unfunded.
The Italian MoD has restarted the Leonardo MC-27J Praetorian development programme, allocating initial funding from 2021 to 2026 for a total of EUR80 million (USD94.3 million). The photo shows an MC-27J Praetorian with winglets. (Leonardo SpA)
The MC-27J Praetorian programme was launched in the early 2010s to study and eventually develop a special forces version of the AMI's C-27J tactical aircraft for commando and weaponised missions.
The programme appeared to have stalled in the mid-2010s as no progress was reported until November 2020, when, according to official documents, the Italian Air Force Staff gave a mandate to the Directorate for Air Armaments and Airworthiness (DAAA) to proceed with the refinement of the technical-administrative process aimed at restarting the development (and subsequent procurement) of a ‘Praetorian' mission system in Initial Operational Capability (IOC) configuration to be integrated on a C-27J transport aircraft.
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