ROME — Italy’s Leonardo is on a shopping spree to beef up Europe’s cyber-defense capability and is targeting Nordic firms to get the job done, CEO Roberto Cingolani has told Defense News. Cingolani laid out the Italian defense giant’s strategy after announcing a series of new investments during the summer. In July, Leonardo took a…
ROME — British, Italian and Japanese firms set to build sensors and communications systems for the GCAP fighter have formed a UK-based consortium ready to sign a design and development contract with the platform’s lead integrators. Known as GCAP Electronics Evolution (G2E), the consortium groups Leonardo and ELT Group from Italy, Leonardo UK and Mitsubishi…
Italian government and industry leaders are rushing this week to figure out how to spend a European Union-backed windfall of billions of euros in defense cash as Italy seeks to reach new NATO spending targets. In a week when most Italian politicians were heading for the beach, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni summoned the CEOs…
ROME — Italian defense giant Leonardo has agreed to buy Italy’s Iveco Defence Vehicles for €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion), ending months of speculation about the future of the up-for-sale military vehicle maker. The deal, which Leonardo will finance with available cash resources, marks another step into land systems for Leonardo after its tie-up last year…
ROME — The Italian navy has ordered two PPA multimission vessels from local shipyard Fincantieri, filling a gap after two PPAs previously ordered by the sea service were diverted to Indonesia. The vessels will be delivered to the Italian navy by Fincantieri in 2029 and 2030 under a contract worth €700 million ($819 million) which…
ROME — The Italian Air Force has formally entered into service a new basic jet trainer, the Leonardo M-345, which will operate alongside the firm’s better known M-346 advanced trainer. The M-345 entered service on Thursday at a ceremony at the Air Force’s 61st Wing at Galatina air base in southern Italy, where it will…
PARIS — European NATO countries are eyeing drones for airborne electromagnetic-warfare operations including radar jamming, a skill many of the continent’s air forces are currently lacking. Italy’s Leonardo says between ten and twenty NATO countries have expressed interest in a capability similar to the StormShroud radar-jammer drone it provided to the U.K. Leonardo has taken…
PARIS — The companies behind the Eurofighter, Europe’s most prevalent homegrown combat jet, have set new growth targets that prize a near-term fleet buildup over more distant breakthroughs expected from sixth-generation programs like the Future Combat Air System, or FCAS. The plan envisions an annual Eurofighter production boost from 14 planes now to 20 copies…
