EU regulators must let defense firms merge freely, Leonardo boss urges

ROME — The European Union’s anti-trust officials must stay out of the defense sector and allow local firms to merge, integrate and build a critical mass to face global competition, the CEO of Italy’s Leonardo has warned.

Roberto Cingolani made the claim as he repeated calls for European defense firms to team up – without waiting for instructions from governments – so the continent can compete on even terms around the world.

“Anti-trust was conceived as a way to ensure free competition in Europe, but we are talking about Europe competing with China, India, Japan and the U.S.,” he told reporters in Rome on Wednesday.

“In that case anti-trust weakens us, it doesn’t help us. The concept has a sense in many sectors but we need to identify sectors like security and energy where the competition is global,” he said, adding that blocking defense mergers would condemn the sector to remain “marginal.”

Since he was appointed to run Italy’s defense giant Leonard in April 2023, Cingolani has spelled out his desire to push European industry integration, telling the Italian parliament in October he was eyeing “giant” joint ventures in Europe.

Italian industry found itself on the wrong side of European Commission anti-trust officials when shipyard Fincantieri’s bid to take over French shipyard Chantiers de l’Atlantique was nixed in 2021.

More integration in Europe will mean more cash focused on fewer programs, Cingolani said.

“Europe spends a little less than half as much as on defense as the United States. And the EU spends it on 30 programs and the U.S. on ten,” he said.

He said he had been discussing team-ups with European CEOs and said that if only three out ten ideas for alliances were successful it would be “an enormous success.”

He singled out satellite launches as a sector where European activity was too fragmented, and called for a “unified strategy” in the bloc for space launchers, services, communications and exploration.

In December, Leonardo and KNDS – the consortium teaming France’s Nexter and Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann – announced they were forming a “strategic alliance” to build tanks . A memorandum of understanding envisions starting with Italy’s order of Leopard tanks which will be assembled in Italy, and leading into Italian participation in the European Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) – a future tank plotted by France and Germany.

What has not been clear is what exact form the alliance will take and Cingolani said that was now being thrashed out. “The MOU gave us 12 months to decide what kind of collaboration to start, from a joint venture to other things,” he said, adding that a decision was likely in the next five weeks.

“One idea could be an MBDA-type alliance, a consortium which each partner having a third,” he said, referring to the pan-European missile company.

Leonardo has been reportedly mulling buying Italian military vehicle maker Iveco Defence Vehicles in order to bulk up ahead of possible European land warfare alliances. Asked about the possibility, Cingolani said the two companies had “been in contact recently” without giving any further details.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利莱昂纳多公司首席执行官警告称，欧盟反垄断官员必须远离国防领域，允许当地企业合并、整合并形成足够的规模来应对全球竞争。

罗伯托·辛戈拉尼发表此番言论时，再次呼吁欧洲国防企业联合起来——无需等待政府的指示——以便欧洲大陆能够在世界各地公平竞争。

“反垄断法的初衷是为了确保欧洲的自由竞争，但我们现在谈论的是欧洲与中国、印度、日本和美国竞争，”他周三在罗马对记者说。

“在这种情况下，反垄断法反而会削弱我们，对我们没有任何帮助。这个概念在很多领域都有其意义，但我们需要明确哪些领域，例如安全和能源，它们的竞争是全球性的，”他说道，并补充说，阻止国防领域的并购将使该领域永远处于“边缘”地位。

自 2023 年 4 月被任命为意大利国防巨头 Leonard 的总裁以来，辛戈拉尼就明确表达了他推动欧洲工业一体化的愿望，并在 10 月份告诉意大利议会，他正在关注欧洲的“巨型”合资企业。

2021 年，意大利造船企业 Fincantieri 收购法国造船厂 Chantiers de l'Atlantique 的计划被否决，意大利工业界因此与欧盟委员会的反垄断官员产生了冲突。

辛戈拉尼表示，欧洲一体化程度的加深意味着更多的资金将集中用于更少的项目。

他说：“欧洲的国防开支略低于美国的一半。欧盟将这些资金用于30个项目，而美国只用于10个。”

他说他一直在与欧洲首席执行官们讨论合作事宜，并表示如果十个联盟想法中只有三个成功，那也将是“巨大的成功”。

他特别指出卫星发射领域是欧洲活动过于分散的领域，并呼吁欧盟制定一项针对航天运载火箭、服务、通信和探索的“统一战略”。

去年12月，莱昂纳多公司与法国奈克斯特公司和德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司组成的联合体KNDS宣布，双方将建立“战略联盟”共同建造坦克。一份谅解备忘录设想，合作将从意大利订购的豹式坦克开始，这些坦克将在意大利组装，最终目标是让意大利参与欧洲主战坦克系统（MGCS）项目——这是法国和德国共同规划的未来坦克。

目前尚不清楚该联盟的具体形式，辛戈拉尼表示，双方正在就此进行磋商。“谅解备忘录给了我们12个月的时间来决定开展何种合作，从合资企业到其他形式，”他说道，并补充说，预计将在未来五周内做出决定。

“一个想法是建立类似MBDA那样的联盟，即每个合作伙伴都拥有第三个合作伙伴的财团，”他说道，这里指的是泛欧导弹公司MBDA。

据报道，莱昂纳多集团一直在考虑收购意大利军用车辆制造商依维柯防务车辆公司，以增强自身实力，应对未来可能出现的欧洲陆战联盟。当被问及此事时，辛戈拉尼表示两家公司“最近有过接触”，但未透露更多细节。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。