Back to news

December 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

CEO of Leonardo: A two–way street benefits everyone

By: Alessandro Profumo

Rapid changes are taking place around the world, both at the geopolitical and technological level, which are having an extremely disruptive impact on the defense industry and its customers, namely governments.

For its part, technological innovation has reached a pace never seen before. Growing digitalization, big-data processing, robotics, autonomous systems, biotechnology, hypersonics, directed energy: These are just a few examples of innovations that revolutionize industry and governments' approaches to defense and security issues.

In some cases, innovations on the commercial side are driving the technological evolution in the defense sector, with increasingly wider applications from a dual-use perspective.

There is a real two-way street.

The role of government is crucial in developing a long-term investment strategy and identifying the sovereign technologies necessary to maintain a technological advantage over new peers and emerging actors, in symmetric and asymmetric conflicts. Threats to peace and global stability do not solely originate in traditional domains (air, land, sea), but materialize in space and cyberspace, more difficult to protect, as they both lack precise boundaries.

Increasing defense spending is a positive signal, especially when coupled with a strong vision and clear objectives aimed at the development of the right capabilities in an international cooperation framework.

The national defense industry, as a strategic asset of its own country, must be able to capture technological innovation where it is produced, finding effective ways of accessing new ideas and solutions. Secondly, it must be able to manage the dynamics between long development and production cycles that characterize this sector, and technological innovation's fast pace.

The sense of urgency must regard delivering what is needed, when needed, providing the end user with the maximum benefit and anticipating and adapting to changes, while triggering an ever-growing contamination across industries, governments, startups and academia.

A deep interconnection between the defense industry and its customers, working in close synergy, facilitates flexible and adaptable structures capable of responding quickly to new and complex emergencies.

In this perspective, the closer one works with the customer — throughout the entire product life cycle — the more this reverberates positively at the industry level. The shared awareness rising from this cooperation will enable industry to make wise and focused investment decisions in order to develop products and solutions that best fit future market requirements.

Bearing in mind that technology alone is not enough, true success in creating a resilient defense industry also lies in the ability to attract and retain highly specialized human capital as well as involving the supplier base in innovation processes.

A shared road map is, therefore, a priority — industry and governments, working together, side by side, committed to building a safer world.

Alessandro Profumo is the CEO of Leonardo.

https://www.defensenews.com/outlook/2019/12/02/ceo-of-leonardo-a-twoway-street-benefits-everyone

On the same subject

  • Intel Agency Studies MQ-25 For Surveillance Role

    October 3, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval

    Intel Agency Studies MQ-25 For Surveillance Role

    Steve Trimble The U.S. Navy's MQ-25 is being developed as a carrier-based aerial refueler, but an intelligence agency is showing interest in the unmanned aircraft system for a maritime surveillance role. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has commissioned Boeing to study the integration requirements for installing the company's Multi-Mission Pod (MMP) on the MQ-25. Boeing developed the MMP using internal funding for the P-8A, a submarine hunter derived from the 737NG. It is designed to carry multiple payloads, including communication and electronic intelligence receivers. The NGA-sponsored study will evaluate how to use the MMP to introduce the agency's “maritime program” on the P-8A and MQ-25 fleets. The agency on Sept. 30 published a “justification and approval” notice for the study contract awarded to Boeing in May. Such notices are required to justify any contract awarded to a single contractor without a competition. In this case, the sole source award was justified because the MQ-25 is still early in the development phase, the NGA says, so Boeing is the only company that has access to the design data. The Navy awarded Boeing an $805 million in August 2018 to deliver four MQ-25 aircraft during the engineering and manufacturing development phase. The overall value of the deal has since risen to $944 million, of which $436 million, or 46.1%, has been obligated, according to the USASpending.gov procurement tracking site. Last month, Boeing completed the first flight of a company-funded test asset for the MQ-25 program at an airport in Illinois. The study also suggests the P-8A and MQ-25 fleet could be used to help replace the electronic intelligence capability once performed by the Lockheed EP-3E fleet. The Navy has said that the EP-3E will be replaced by a family of manned and unmanned aircraft, including the P-8A and the MQ-4C unmanned aircraft system. https://aviationweek.com/defense/intel-agency-studies-mq-25-surveillance-role

  • Emirates says orders 15 Airbus A350-900 worth $6 bln | Reuters

    November 16, 2023 | International, Aerospace

    Emirates says orders 15 Airbus A350-900 worth $6 bln | Reuters

    Dubai's Emirates Airline on Thursday anounced an order for 15 Airbus A350-900 wide-body jets, which it said was worth $6 billion.

  • Lockheed Martin To Partner With Multiple European Companies On F-16 Training Center In Romania

    November 14, 2023 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

    Lockheed Martin To Partner With Multiple European Companies On F-16 Training Center In Romania

    As part of the agreement, the team will be responsible to organize, schedule, operate and maintain the F-16 fighter jets provided by the Royal Netherlands Air Force in support of...

All news