French firm Hynaero and defense and aerospace group Leonardo will explore how they can collaborate on the development and production of a next-generation amphibious firefighting aircraft. On October 23, 2026, Hynaero said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with Leonardo to define collaboration over major aero structural components for the Fregate-F100 program. The Fregate-F100 is designed to carry a 10-ton water payload and help secure European and French sovereignty over aerial forest firefighting capabilities.
Potential collaboration areas include aircraft aerostructure design-build, testing-validation, engineering, certification, industrialization, maintainability, system design and build, promotion in Italy and export opportunities. Hynaero highlighted Leonardo's position as a leading supplier of main structures such as the fuselage and wings and its expertise in aerial emergency response and firefighting. Concept validation for the Fregate-F100 was carried out in 2025 with support from institutional and industry partners in Europe, and key features include a 250 knots cruising speed, more than four hours of firefighting autonomy at 250 km from its home base, a ferry range of up to 2,500 km, fly-by-wire controls, a head-up display and predictive maintenance. The aircraft is intended to perform its first test flight in 2030 and launch the following year.