Leonardo participates in DSEI Japan (Tokyo, 15-17 March 2023 – stand H7-300), a reference event in the defense sector in the Asia-Pacific area, where it will exhibit technologies, products and systems in the aerospace, defense and safety. Also highlighted is the sixth generation system of systems, also known as GCAP (Global Combat Air Program), the great innovation in the sector that sees Leonardo in a leading position within the innovative Italy-Japan-UK collaboration model .
Leonardo has been present in Japan for over 40 years with more than 160 helicopters chosen by the Japanese Navy, the Coast Guard, the Police, and departments operating in the field of firefighting and SAR (Search and Rescue) missions.
Leonardo, with an office in Tokyo, has built a solid relationship with Japan over the years, going beyond the simple supply of products and services. Today there is a close collaboration between the industries of the two countries also consolidated through licensing agreements with local industrial partners such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Japan Radio Corporation, Japan Steel Works, to name a few. In addition, Leonardo collaborates locally with repair, maintenance and overhaul centers, distributors, resellers and promoters able to provide customers with a rapid response to their needs.
Great attention, within the most important sector event in the country, will be dedicated to GCAP - the program for the development of the sixth generation fighter - which sees Leonardo consolidate its strategic presence in Japan. The GCAP government programme, whose partner countries are Italy, Japan and the UK – and of which Leonardo is a strategic partner – represents one of the most futuristic challenges for the decades to come for the aerospace, defense and security industry.
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Guglielmo Maviglia, SVP Leonardo of the GCAP program underlined: “GCAP will lead the technological revolution that will characterize our sector in the next fifty years. It represents a challenge aimed at protecting and strengthening the technological and industrial sovereignty of the countries involved, ensuring prosperity, safeguarding distinctive skills, employment return and competitiveness. It will be a great challenge because we have to develop a system of multi-domain systems, with the aircraft that will remain the core platform and the various assets that will be interconnected generating an integrated system, ranging from unmanned platforms to armaments, capable of communicating with the 5 domains , land, sea, air, cyber and space”.
Leonardo will be the protagonist thanks to the key role it plays within the GCAP program for the development of sensors for the sixth generation fighter. The ISANKE&ICS (Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects & Integrated Communications System) technology that Leonardo, Elettronica and the Japanese Mitsubishi Electric are developing, is configured as a "web" of interconnected systems capable of giving the aircraft superior capabilities in terms of sensors and self-protection.
In Leonardo's "Battle Lab", the study and evaluation of the future sixth generation air combat system is already underway, where the technologies defined as enabling are developed and tested. To do this, Leonardo has created a cutting-edge environment resulting from the combination of physical systems, synthetic and immersive reality, in which the aim is to validate new operational concepts well before having a demonstrator or flying prototype available. The digital simulator ideally reproduces what could be the cockpit of a sixth generation fighter, where only the stick and throttle of an aircraft are "physical" and where everything is virtual and augmented. A revolutionary interface able to offer the pilot an immersive experience on the fighter of the future.
Leonardo's key role in aircraft development and training services is well represented by the M-346, an aircraft that enables young pilots to develop the knowledge, skills and practices necessary to ensure the transition to modern combat aircraft. The M-346 is at the center of the new International Flight Training School (IFTS) created by Leonardo and the Air Force, chosen by the Japan Air Force for the training of its student pilots. An internationally recognized Italian excellence, already chosen by the air forces of Qatar, Germany and Singapore - among others - and selected as the flagship campus for the NATO Flying Training in Europe (NFTE) project. The M-346 platform is a fully integrated advanced training system, including a complete system of simulators and ground training devices, as well as a fully operational Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) environment developed entirely by Leonardo, capable of preparing future pilots to face the most complex and demanding operational scenarios they will face once at the helm of current and future generation fighters.
In evidence the AW139M multi-mission helicopter, military version of the well-known AW139 which represents the most suitable response for government and military missions, in all weather and environmental conditions. Able to combine advanced technology and high power margins, the AW139M performs a wide range of missions such as theater support, tactical troop transport, logistical support, close support, firefighting, command and control, medical evacuation, search and Combat Rescue (CSAR), Maritime Patrol and Homeland Security.
Leonardo is a global player in the defense electronics sector and at DSEI Japan will promote a number of advanced systems of interest to the Asia Pacific market. A key feature is the BriteCloud active “expendable” countermeasure, unique in the field of countermeasures for the protection of combat aircraft. Leveraging the latest generation DRFM (Digital Radio Frequency Memory) jamming technology, the compact and small-sized system can be launched from standard countermeasure dispensers. Unlike traditional chaff and flares, BriteCloud employs a sophisticated electronic protection capability designed to counter radar-guided threats. Still in the field of countermeasures, Leonardo's Miysis DIRCM (Directed Infra-Red Counter Measure) has demonstrated that it can provide maximum level protection against infrared (IR) missiles, such as those launched by the so-called MANPADs (Man-Portable Air defense systems). Drawing on the company's decades of experience in the DIRCM field, the speed and energy of the system allows the Miysis to counter multiple simultaneous incoming missiles. Numerous NATO and non-NATO users have chosen Miysis for its ability to defeat next generation threats.
Also on display are fixed and mobile multi-domain and multi-domain radars (air, land, sea), with AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) mechanical and electronic scanning technology, used for air, land and sea surveillance and defense tasks, capable of detecting, classifying and tracking multiple targets simultaneously.
The IFF (Identification Friend/Foe) friend/foe identification systems that allow crews to recognize friendly forces in real time and identify potentially hostile ones, through an exchange of encrypted signals. This technology, of which Leonardo is a global leader, has already been chosen by the Japanese Armed Forces (Japan Ground Self Defense Forces – JGSDF). Finally, DSEI will be the occasion to present the Vulcano family of ammunition with 155 mm calibers in the land version and 127 mm in the naval one. The trajectory of the unguided munitions is of the conventional ballistic type with a range of up to 70 km, while the range of the guided versions reaches 100 km.