Bytes, bullets and broader horizons: New Leonardo boss teases strategy

ROME — Leonardo is eyeing “giant” joint ventures in Europe, starting with electronics tie-ups, and is seeking to boost its space alliance with Thales while making “peace” with shipyard Fincantieri, the Italian firm’s CEO has said.

In a wide-ranging speech to an Italian parliamentary defense committee, Roberto Cingolani outlined his strategy for the Italian flagship defense firm, five months after taking over the helm from previous CEO Alessandro Profumo.

The 61-year-old Italian kicked off his speech by stressing how he has worked to increase Leonardo’s capabilities in cybersecurity and high-powered computing, claiming the focus would reinforce, rather than distract, from the firm’s defense work.

“It’s not just bullets, but bytes,” he said, adding that “we will defend our core business” and emphasizing that “traditional defense remains a key pillar.”

However, he explained, “we must broaden our horizons.”

A former chief technology and innovation officer at Leonardo, Cingolani pushed cyber and artificial intelligence programs at the firm before he left in 2021 to become a so-called green transition minister with the Italian government, only to return to Leonardo as CEO in May.

“Everything has to be cyber safe by design,” he told the committee during his Oct. 25 presentation, adding that the firm is on a “forced march” toward digitalization, with “digital twins” now being created for all products.

Cingolani said Leonardo’s competitors are now not only defense companies, but the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM.

“There are companies which didn’t exist. Ten years ago Elon Musk was running PayPal and then ran Tesla. Now we have these kind of competitors,” he said.

Musk’s SpaceX is a defense contractor and satellite communications company.

Cingolani is overseeing the cyber push, while Leonardo’s co-general manager, Lorenzo Mariani, focuses on the firm’s more traditional defense work.

Turning to alliances, Cingolani said Leonardo wants to play a key role in European industry consolidation.

“We are working on some alliances that should create European hubs in fundamental defense sectors. That means creating entities that are not just Italian, just German or just French, and can compete on level terms with U.S. and China colossuses,” he said. “We have due diligence and talks with international banks underway to help us understand what to sell and what to buy, and we are mulling some joint venture on a giant scale.”

Cingolani said a likely area for consolidation is electronics.

“However big we — or the French, or the Germans — are in electronics, none of us are big enough to compete with the American or Chinese, and that is why we are mulling aggregation,” he explained.

Cingolani added he is calling for a halt to tension that surfaced in recent years between Leonardo and fellow Italian state-controlled firm Fincantieri . Leonardo provides radar, electronics and guns for Fincantieri vessels, but the two firms tussled as Fincantieri expanded into wider defense activities under former CEO Giuseppe Bono.

“Peace has broken out,” Cingolani said. He also told the committee that he had agreed with current Fincantieri CEO Pierroberto Folgiero that “we will make things that fly and they will make things that float. It’s not that complicated, with electronics acting as the glue.”

Turning to Leonardo’s space activities, Cingolani quoted reports predicting the space business would be worth $1 trillion by 2030, claiming that “the market is crazy,” with “huge margins” for growth in satellites.

The CEO also said he wants to boost the activities of Leonardo’s space alliance with French firm Thales — a tie-up which had become “a bit sleepy” in recent years.

He added he had found a willing partner in Thales CEO Patrice Caine.

“If we don’t work together to compete with SpaceX, not to mention the Indian and Chinese governments, we risk disappearing,” he said.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利公司莱昂纳多首席执行官表示，该公司正着眼于在欧洲开展“巨型”合资项目，首先从电子领域的合作开始，并寻求加强与泰雷兹的太空联盟，同时与造船厂芬坎蒂尼达成“和解”。

在向意大利议会国防委员会发表的广泛讲话中，罗伯托·辛戈拉尼概述了他对这家意大利旗舰国防公司的战略。五个月前，他从前任首席执行官亚历山德罗·普罗富莫手中接过领导权。

这位 61 岁的意大利人首先强调了他如何努力提高莱昂纳多在网络安全和高性能计算方面的能力，并声称这种关注将加强而不是分散公司在国防领域的工作。

“这不仅仅是子弹，而是字节，”他说道，并补充说“我们将捍卫我们的核心业务”，并强调“传统防御仍然是一个关键支柱”。

但他解释说，“我们必须拓宽视野。”

Cingolani 曾任 Leonardo 的首席技术和创新官，在 2021 年离开公司担任意大利政府所谓的绿色转型部长之前，他一直在推动公司的网络安全和人工智能项目，但今年 5 月他又回到 Leonardo 担任首席执行官。

他在 10 月 25 日的报告中告诉委员会：“一切都必须从设计上就保证网络安全。”他还补充说，公司正在“被迫”迈向数字化，现在所有产品都在创建“数字孪生”。

Cingolani表示，莱昂纳多公司的竞争对手现在不仅包括国防公司，还包括谷歌、微软、亚马逊和IBM等公司。

“有些公司以前根本不存在。十年前，埃隆·马斯克还在运营PayPal，后来又运营特斯拉。现在我们才有了这些竞争对手，”他说。

马斯克的SpaceX是一家国防承包商和卫星通信公司。

Cingolani 负责监督网络安全方面的推进，而 Leonardo 的联合总经理 Lorenzo Mariani 则专注于公司更传统的国防工作。

谈到联盟问题，辛戈拉尼表示，莱昂纳多希望在欧洲产业整合中发挥关键作用。

“我们正在努力建立一些联盟，旨在打造欧洲在基础国防领域的中心。这意味着要创建不局限于意大利、德国或法国的实体，以便能够与美国和中国的巨头企业公平竞争，”他说道。“我们正在与国际银行进行尽职调查和洽谈，以帮助我们了解应该出售什么以及应该购买什么，我们还在考虑成立一些规模庞大的合资企业。”

Cingolani表示，电子产品领域很可能成为整合的领域。

“无论我们——或者法国人、德国人——在电子行业规模有多大，我们都没有足够的实力与美国或中国竞争，这就是为什么我们正在考虑整合的原因，”他解释说。

辛戈拉尼补充说，他呼吁停止近年来莱昂纳多公司与另一家意大利国有企业芬坎蒂尼集团之间出现的紧张关系。莱昂纳多公司为芬坎蒂尼集团的舰艇提供雷达、电子设备和火炮，但随着芬坎蒂尼集团在前首席执行官朱塞佩·博诺的领导下拓展更广泛的国防业务，两家公司之间产生了冲突。

“和平已经到来，”辛戈拉尼说道。他还告诉委员会，他已与芬坎蒂尼集团现任首席执行官皮埃罗贝托·福尔杰罗达成一致，“我们将制造能飞的东西，他们将制造能漂浮的东西。这并不复杂，电子元件就像粘合剂一样将两者连接起来。”

谈到莱昂纳多公司的太空活动，辛戈拉尼引用了一些报告，预测到 2030 年太空业务的价值将达到 1 万亿美元，并声称“市场很疯狂”，卫星业务的增长“利润空间巨大”。

这位首席执行官还表示，他希望加强莱昂纳多与法国泰雷兹公司太空联盟的活动——近年来，这一合作关系变得“有点沉寂”。

他还补充说，他找到了泰雷兹首席执行官帕特里斯·凯恩作为合作伙伴。

他说：“如果我们不携手与SpaceX竞争，更不用说与印度和中国政府竞争了，我们就有被淘汰的风险。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。