"What we need in Europe is to create alliances, joint-ventures, synergies. There are many different opportunities," Roberto Cingolani told AFP in an interview at the UK's Farnborough air show.

"We are all rather small compared to the competitors in the US and China. So we need to reinforce and get critical mass," said the boss of continental Europe's leading defence group.

Since his arrival in 2023 at the head of the Italian aeronautics and defence group, the physicist and former government minister under former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi has strived to create collaborations with his European peers.

He says he finds people increasingly attentive to his message "because I think the Ukraine war has given a clear indication that no one can make it on its own", he said.

States remain concerned about their sovereignty and maintaining control of technologies but they also realise the need for manufacturers to come together to be more efficient, he said. "It's a long journey."

With Italy seeking to acquire new combat tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, Leonardo began discussions with the Franco-German KNDS to develop an Italian version derived from the Leopard 2 tank.

- Early days -

The negotiations with KNDS ultimately failed, but Cingolani has now joined forces with German arms group Rheinmetall to create a joint venture based in Italy, where 60 percent of the work will be carried out.

In the space sector, Leonardo has a long-standing alliance with the French company Thales through Thales Alenia Space (TAS) -- two-thirds controlled by the French company, the remainder by Leonardo -- and Telespazio.

TAS's French activities in geostationary communications satellites are suffering, however, pushing TAS to cut 1,300 jobs, although it does not make Cingolani doubt the necessity of this "space alliance".

"It's a marriage, if one of you has a little problem, the other has to help. And to be honest, it's happened in the past the other way around and Thales has been very supportive."

As certain Airbus space activities are also in difficulty, Airbus and Thales have initiated informal discussions on working together, with the talks still at an early stage.

"We're also discussing with them on how we can make our space strategy as a continent much bigger and much stronger.

"I don't think there has been such a collaborative approach among these companies in the past."

Leonardo is part of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) for future combat aircraft with the United Kingdom and Japan, but Cingolani does not rule out a possible future collaboration with the competing French-Spanish-German SCAF air combat system initiative.

Competition between the two projects is "not logical" given the billions of euros of investments to be made, according to Mike Schoellhorn, the general director of Airbus Defence and Space.

"I'm not saying merging, maybe this is too much, but for sure some collaboration. It's too early to say, we're just at the beginning," Cingolani added.

mra/har/phz/gv

RHEINMETALL

THALES

Airbus Group

Leonardo