Canada Enters Negotiations To Acquire The M346 Master For FFLIT, Italy and Canada To Stockpile Critical Munitions

Press Release

Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, met with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, on the margins of the 2026 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Évian, France.

The leaders noted ongoing efforts to deepen cooperation across a range of priorities, including critical minerals, energy, defence, and secure supply chains. This includes a recent investment of almost $100 million by Italian energy company Eni to procure Canadian graphite from Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine in Québec, where construction recently started just six months after the project’s referral to the Major Projects Office. The last year has seen Italy become a member of the Critical Minerals Production Alliance launched at the 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, a Canadian Trade Mission to Italy, and a Canadian Critical Minerals Investment Forum in Italy.

Building on this progress, Prime Minister Carney welcomed Italy’s intention to collaborate with Canada to stockpile critical minerals. These efforts will catalyse further partnerships between the two countries in energy and industry.

Canada and Italy are becoming increasingly close in defence and security. To that end, the leaders were pleased to launch negotiations for Canada’s purchase of M-346 advanced jet trainer aircraft designed and produced by Leonardo, one of Italy’s largest aerospace companies. Leveraging Italian expertise in aerospace and defence, this agreement will enable the Royal Canadian Air Force to train in state-of-the-art equipment and build sovereign training capability.

This is Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy in action, with the Build-Partner-Buy approach building at home and partnering with reliable allies. Prime Minister Carney also underscored Canada’s efforts to establish the Defence, Security, and Resilience Bank to provide multi-year, low-cost financing for defence, security, and resilience initiatives.

The prime ministers reaffirmed their enduring support for Ukraine and agreed on the imperative of keeping up pressure on Russia to achieve a just and lasting peace. They also discussed the situation in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Meloni agreed to remain in close contact.

---

Noah Note: I knew this one was coming! Some of Y'all doubted, but I knew. To make a disclaimer here, this is not a contract purchase. This is merely announcement that we've entered negotiations, and as always that can change. Thing's can happen and talks can stall. Not a garuntee, but I dont see this one failing.

Of course the M346 always felt like the natural solution here. CAE, the Strategic partner on FFLIT, already has experience with the 346 through the International Flight Training School in Italy; the 346 is already part of the interim solution training pilots through it, and Canada has committed to further integration with allies through joining the NATO Flight Training Europe (NFTE) program last year, which the 346 is well-positioned in its current role to support.

ITPS also announced the acquisition of the M346 just before CANSEC, already committing to a wider public-private ecosystem for the Master. With Canada looking to contribute more to NATO, and pilot training being in significant demand, aligning ourselves not only with our NATO allies, but also our own industry when it comes to advanced trainers makes sense.

This acquisition will position the RCAF well to both continue their current model of training, but also the potnetial to further expand collaboration wirh partners abroad through programs like NFTC, in basic terms. Overall, it is the modern, fifth-generation capable option that makes the most sense for us. Almost everything aligns to the M346. It just makes sense.