Leonardo takes part in Seoul International Aerospace & Defence Exhibition

As the first big defence event in Asia Pacific after the pandemic, Leonardo is attending ADEX exhibition (stand B-62), held in Seoul Airport from 19th to 23rd October, strong of its more than 50 years of relation with its Korean partners and a solid commercial presence in the whole region.

In the country, where the company is present since 2013, Leonardo has a long heritage providing the latest helicopters and defence and security electronics specially for aeronautic and avionic sector. Leonardo’s successful partnerships with various Korean manufacturers have already enabled the platform integration of multiple systems for domestic and export customers and the company contributes to export of local naval products all around the world. Key to Leonardo’s success is its collaboration with Korean companies, partnership launched by the company as Global Providee and OEM – as set out in the BeTomorrow2030 Strategic Plan currently being implemented – and readiness to develop with its industry advanced technologies for future requirements. Leonardo has supplied the Lynx helicopter and AW159 maritime operation helicopter currently used by the Korean Navy, and a range of commercial and dualuse platforms such as the AW139, the best-selling Search and Rescue (SAR) and firefighting helicopter in its category. In addition, it has entered Korea in various fields and is maintaining a cooperative relationship between the Korean government and companies, also by actively performing follow-up logistics management for helicopters in operation.

At ADEX, Leonardo is presenting its technological solutions, being the company fully oriented throughout innovation and next generation capabilities thanks to continuous investment in R&D and open innovation initiatives, like the Leonardo Labs: technology incubators intended to support Leonardo’s long-term research and its development of cutting-edge technologies, aiming the company not just to remain on the frontline of innovation, but to anticipate it, thereby improving the products and services offered to customers and boosting long-term growth prospects.

In the region Leonardo is marketing its offer in the air defence field, with its RAT-31 DL advanced L-band 3D surveillance radar. It has an instrumental range of almost 500km, which – in the mobile version – can be easily assembled and disassembled on the battlefield. Additionally, the radar provides increased survivability thanks to its rapid adaptability to a broad spectrum of changing operational scenarios. The proposed solutions are based on proven and state-of-theart “NATO Class 1” radars and answer the modernisation needs of Korean air surveillance capabilities.

With an increasing trend of armed forces needs of protection from new and evolving capable threats, typical technologies are no longer, Leonardo is marketing at ADEX its Miysis Directed InfraRed CounterMeasure (DIRCM), an advanced aircraft protection that requires a very high level of expertise to develop and produce.

A model of the Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ship represents Leonardo’s capabilities in naval defence and maritime and coastal surveillance, with the company being able to equip all classes of ship with the latest technological solutions. Leonardo’s portfolio includes the production and integration of combat systems, naval combat management and communications, fire control radars, electro-optical sensors, latest-generation navigation systems, various calibre guns, missiles, torpedoes, sonars and electronic warfare sensors and suites. The wide range of solutions that Leonardo provides in the naval field also include the AW159, AW101 helicopters, which can be equipped with advanced sensors, and the AWHERO Rotary Unmanned Air System (RUAS), which can be teamed with manned aircraft from a permanent shore base or forward deployed operating base. Teamed with AW159 and/or AW101 helicopters, AWHERO significantly enhances maritime operational effect and tactical reach during littoral and blue water operations.

Leonardo AW159 Wildcat and AW101 Merlin helicopters have been keeping watch over the Carrier Task Group ensuring the force is well protected from sub-surface, surface and air threats. These helicopters demonstrated their all-weather capabilities when the Task Group visited Korea only few weeks ago. Importantly, Leonardo also equipping both Queen Elizabeth Carriers with a ship wide communications network, connecting crewmembers stationed throughout the 65,000-tonne warships. In fact, Leonardo is providing secure messaging for roughly 90 percent of the Royal Navy’s ships as well as the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s Tide-class tankers. In the fixed wing aeronautical domain, there are several requirements in the APAC area where the company sees Leonardo products an effective response, as the ATR 72MP. At the forefront of maritime patrol capability, the ATR 72MP enables defence, homeland security and environmental protection missions. It is equipped with Leonardo's ATOS surveillance mission system, which brings together the data collected by the aircraft's suite of sensors, including the Seaspray AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) surveillance radar and provides a single data-fused picture to the operators. Beside the maritime patrol tenders, the ATR based special mission aircraft is well suited also for the requirements of the Philippines and Japanese Coast Guard, and more generally across the APAC region due to the extended support already assured to many local operators here of the ATR regional turboprop. Considering the task of advanced training for fighter pilots, Leonardo is able to offer a full training system. This includes the iconic M-346 Advanced Training aircraft, the new M-345, recently delivered to the Italian Air Force and set for the basic-advanced phases of the pilot training syllabus, and a portfolio of training services thanks to the establishment of the International Flight Training School (IFTS) together with the Italian Air Force. Italian Air Force as well as Singaporean, Israeli and Polish Air Forces are already performing with great satisfaction on the M-346 the formation of the future pilots destined to F-35 and Leonardo is confident it could represent the future of the training systems of the Air Forces of Australia and Japan, while the M-346FA – already in delivery for its first international customer –, has already encounter remarkable interest also in the Asia-Pacific area. In fact, in its Fighter Attack version, the M-346FA is a cost-effective light combat aircraft which maintains all its training capabilities and is equipped with Leonardo’s own Grifo-346 multimode fire control radar.