TURIN—Two freshly painted Eurofighter Typhoons roar skyward from Leonardo’s sprawling plant at Caselle, bound for Kuwait. The delivery is routine; the backdrop is anything but. Rising tensions on Europe’s eastern flank and in the Middle East have jolted governments into the sharpest increase in defence spending since the Cold War—and Leonardo sits squarely in the slipstream.
A recent New York Times analysis notes that investors, once wary of the sector, are crowding back in. “Europe, suddenly, has understood that we have to change,” Leonardo’s chief executive Roberto Cingolani told the paper. The Italian champion is positioning itself as the bloc’s prime mover by doubling down on high‑technology R&D and stitching together alliances that span the continent and beyond.
Building the Ecosystem
- Air power – Leonardo is a core partner in the four‑nation Eurofighter consortium and has now logged Kuwait as its largest export customer for the type.
- Land systems – A tie‑up with Germany’s Rheinmetall opens the door to next‑gen armoured vehicles at a time when European armies are re‑arming at pace.
- Uncrewed air – Collaboration with Türkiye’s Baykar gives Leonardo a stake in one of the world’s fastest‑growing drone portfolios.
- Future combat – The company is front‑and‑centre in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) with BAE Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a sixth‑generation aircraft project designed to fuse operations across air, land, sea, space and cyber.
Money Talks
Across NATO Europe, defence budgets are climbing toward—and, in some cases, well past—the 2 %‑of‑GDP benchmark. Analysts forecast a surge of contracts for sensors, electronic‑warfare suites and integrated communications: precisely the niches where Leonardo has ploughed research funds for more than a decade.
Investor Magnet
That technological edge is turning heads in boardrooms as well as ministries. “High‑tech content plus diversified alliances equals resilience,” notes one Milan‑based defence analyst. With its order book swelling and export pipeline widening, Leonardo looks set to parlay Europe’s strategic wake‑up call into a commanding commercial lead.
