Leonardo eyes an Italian gun for Rome’s new Leopard 2 tanks

ROME — Italy will add its own, domestically manufactured components to German Leopard tanks it is buying, possibly including the gun barrel, a senior official at Italian firm Leonardo has told Defense News.

Italy has signed to buy the tanks to fill a capability gap as the Ukraine conflict raises the profile of land war, and aims to assemble the Leopards at a Leonardo assembly line in La Spezia, Italy.

“Under a Letter of Intent signed in December with KNDS there will be a significant ‘Italianisation’ of the Leopard 2 tank to meet Italy’s requirements and provide an industrial and management role for Italy,” said Leonardo’s co-director general, Lorenzo Mariani.

That means a Leonardo-supplied electro-optical sensor, software-defined radio, the command-and-control system and possibly the gun barrel are under evaluation, he said.

The Letter of Intent is part of the alliance announced in December between Leonardo and KNDS which will oversee Italy’s Leopard order of just over 130 combat version Leopard 2 A8 tanks.

KNDS is a consortium of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter.

Mariani said he also expected Italy’s Iveco and Germany’s Rheinmetall to be somehow involved in the program.

The deal with KNDS also discusses Italian entry into the European Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) – a future tank plotted by France and Germany – as well as a €5 billion ($5.4 billion) Italian program, formerly known as AICS, and now redubbed A2CS, to build up to 1,000 infantry fighting vehicles .

The Italian army has drawn up its requirements list, and Mariani said he expected Italy’s procurement office to request an offer for a feasibility study very soon.

“We think it would be correct to give the request to CIO,” he said, referring to Leonardo’s land vehicles consortium with Italian firm Iveco, which is a major supplier of Italian military vehicles.

“CIO would then involve KNDS and probably other producers who have platforms now on the market. Having in mind as a priority a ‘from scratch’ solution, the urgency expressed by the Army merits considering modification and update of products already available on the market like the KNDS tracked Boxer or the Rheinmetall Lynx or the CV90,” he said. “We will evaluate both the hypothesis of a new product or something which takes an existing platform as a base. But in any case it has to guarantee significant national content, in the context of European cooperation.”

Mariani added, “We hope to get the request by the end of February and would have a proposal ready within 2-3 months.”

Mariani told Defense News a second letter of intent contained in the agreement with KNDS envisaged the joint evaluation with KNDS to set up of a “structural alliance.”

“In our intent it could be based on Europe’s only real joint venture, MBDA, in which stakeholders have placed their missile assets but have the ability to manage their ‘national eyes-only’ assets independently, when needed.”

Prior to being appointed co-director at Leonardo last year, reporting to CEO Roberto Cingolani , Mariani was head of MBDA’s Italy operation from 2020 to 2023.

MBDA has been held up as perhaps the best functioning European joint venture to date, and Mariani listed three factors which have made it a success.

“The first is that there were already programs shared by partners before it was set up, like Aster and Storm Shadow. The second is the firms involved really wanted the venture. You need political will but the industrial desire was key. Without that you cannot do it. And thirdly, the venture created a dominant champion, and success breeds success.”

Mariani added: “The MBDA model is applicable to tanks and in principle also to satellites and space services. In the space sector we have three nations, Italy, France, Germany and three big players - Thales, Airbus and Leonardo. There are already joint programs and one major client: the European Space Agency.”

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利莱昂纳多公司的一位高级官员告诉《防务新闻》，意大利将在其购买的德国豹式坦克中添加本国制造的零部件，可能包括炮管。

意大利已签署协议购买这些坦克，以填补乌克兰冲突导致陆地战争日益突出而造成的军事能力缺口，并计划在意大利拉斯佩齐亚的莱昂纳多装配线上组装这些豹式坦克。

“根据去年 12 月与 KNDS 签署的意向书，豹 2 坦克将进行重大‘意大利化’，以满足意大利的需求，并为意大利提供工业和管理方面的作用，”莱昂纳多公司联合总经理洛伦佐·马里亚尼表示。

他说，这意味着莱昂纳多公司提供的光电传感器、软件定义无线电、指挥控制系统以及可能还有炮管都在评估之中。

这份意向书是莱昂纳多和KNDS于12月宣布的联盟的一部分，该联盟将负责监督意大利订购130多辆豹2 A8战斗型坦克的订单。

KNDS是由德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司和法国奈克斯特公司组成的财团。

马里亚尼表示，他还预计意大利的依维柯和德国的莱茵金属也会以某种方式参与到该计划中来。

与 KNDS 的协议还讨论了意大利加入欧洲主地面作战系统 (MGCS)——法国和德国规划的未来坦克——以及一项价值 50 亿欧元（54 亿美元）的意大利计划，该计划以前被称为 AICS，现在更名为 A2CS，旨在建造多达 1000 辆步兵战车。

意大利军方已经拟定了需求清单，马里亚尼表示，他预计意大利采购办公室很快就会要求对可行性研究进行报价。

“我们认为向CIO提出请求是正确的，”他说道，指的是莱昂纳多与意大利公司依维柯组成的陆地车辆联盟，依维柯是意大利军用车辆的主要供应商。

“首席信息官（CIO）届时会邀请KNDS公司以及其他目前市场上已有相关平台的生产商参与。考虑到首要目标是‘从零开始’开发解决方案，但鉴于陆军所表达的紧迫性，我们有必要考虑对现有产品进行改进和升级，例如KNDS的履带式“拳击手”（Boxer）、莱茵金属的‘山猫’（Lynx）或CV90，”他说道。“我们将评估两种方案：一是开发全新产品，二是基于现有平台进行改进。但无论如何，都必须在欧洲合作的框架下，保证较高的国产化率。”

马里亚尼补充道：“我们希望在二月底前收到申请，并在两到三个月内准备好提案。”

马里亚尼告诉《防务新闻》，与 KNDS 达成的协议中包含的第二份意向书设想与 KNDS 进行联合评估，以建立一个“结构性联盟”。

“我们的设想是，它可以借鉴欧洲唯一真正的合资企业MBDA，利益相关方已将各自的导弹资产投入其中，但必要时，他们有能力独立管理其‘仅限本国查看’的资产。”

在去年被任命为 Leonardo 的联合董事，向首席执行官 Roberto Cingolani 汇报工作之前，Mariani 于 2020 年至 2023 年担任 MBDA 意大利业务的负责人。

MBDA 被誉为迄今为止运作最好的欧洲合资企业之一，马里亚尼列举了使其成功的三个因素。

“首先，在项目启动之前，合作伙伴之间就已经有一些共同的项目，比如Aster和Storm Shadow。其次，参与的公司都非常希望成立这家合资企业。虽然政治意愿固然重要，但产业界的渴望才是关键。没有产业界的渴望，项目根本无法成功。第三，这家合资企业打造了一个强大的领军者，而成功往往会带来更多成功。”

马里亚尼补充道：“MBDA模式不仅适用于坦克，原则上也适用于卫星和航天服务。在航天领域，我们有三个国家——意大利、法国和德国，以及三家大型企业——泰雷兹、空客和莱昂纳多。目前已经有一些联合项目，还有一个主要客户：欧洲航天局。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。