Alenia Aermacchi M346

The Alenia Aermacchi M-346 is a military transonic trainer aircraft. Flight published a technical description of the aircraft back in June 2003.

According to the Flight archives the M346 is "being offered as an advanced trainer, [but will] have secondary combat roles, including close air support, interdiction, point defence, homeland defence and low-level air defence.

"These take advantage of the trainer's low operational costs," says Lucchesini, while stressing that the roles are secondary to the M346's main purpose."

Here's a cutaway of the trainer and another image of it on the ground.

Users on Flight's AirSpace forum recently offered suggestions of nicknames for the M346 in a bid to win themselves a free flight in the aircraft.