Alenia Aermacchi
In September 2014, Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) and French Air Force officials were reportedly investigating the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master as a replacement for the Alpha Jet; Alenia Aermacchi claimed that France was interested in procuring 35 M-346s in this capacity. In April 2015, the DGA issued an initial pre-solicitation request for a replacement trainer aircraft; likely candidates for this requirement reportedly include the M-346 Master, Aero L-39 Albatros, Beechcraft T-6 Texan II and Pilatus PC-21. The PC-21 was introduced in 2018.