The industry secured over €64 million in European funding for development and for research

Leonardo strengthens its positioning in the European defence landscape with significant results under the European Defence Fund (EDF) 2025, confirming a growth trajectory aligned with the strategic guidelines of its Industrial Plan, particularly its focus on technologies enabling multidomain operations. 

The results achieved were particularly significant: out of 18 proposals submitted, 15 projects were selected — 11 in capability development and 4 in research — with a success rate that confirms Leonardo’s technological strength and its ability to foster system-wide collaboration at European level. 

EDF 2025 saw the publication of 33 calls, with an overall budget of approximately €1 billion. Against 410 proposals submitted, the European Commission selected 57 projects, involving 634 entities from 26 European countries, as well as Norway and Ukraine, with a strong focus on inclusiveness and SME participation, with SMEs accounting for 38% of participants. 

Particularly noteworthy are the two Leonardo-led projects: ASIMOV — Autonomous System for Inspection, Maintenance, defence Operations and manoeuVres — and ANEMOS — Airborne New European MIDS Operational Solution. Among the initiatives with the highest strategic potential, ASIMOV is a capability development programme focused on in-orbit operations and services for European defence, confirming Leonardo’s leading role in the Space domain. ANEMOS, by contrast, is a research initiative aimed at expanding European capabilities in information superiority and interoperability through new radio communication solutions and advanced waveforms. 

Leonardo’s success in EDF 2025 is closely linked to an inclusive approach in building project consortia, fully consistent with the priorities of the European Commission. EDF 2025 projects involve an average of 18 entities per consortium and include a broad range of countries, avoiding national concentrations. Leonardo has actively contributed to achieving this vision by fostering collaboration among large industries, SMEs, research centres and institutions, while promoting a broad and distributed presence across the European defence value chain. 

Value generated and consolidation of growth 

In EDF 2025, Leonardo secured over €64 million in European funding — €51 million for capability development and €13 million for research. These results consolidate a stable and growing performance over time, confirming the company’s position among the leading European industrial players in EDF programmes. Group companies also strengthened the overall contribution across the 15 projects in which Leonardo is involved, bringing the Group’s total share of funding obtained to approximately €84 million. 

This achievement confirms Leonardo as the leading Italian company in terms of projects secured from Brussels, also thanks to the synergy with the Ministry of Defence, and increases the relevance of the “Italian System” within the European landscape. 

These figures represent not only a financial and industrial success, but also reflect the company’s ability to effectively address European priorities, translating its industrial strategy into concrete initiatives with high technological value. Leonardo’s presence in the activities funded under EDF 2025 highlights clear alignment with the company’s Industrial Plan, particularly in the development of enabling technologies for multi-domain operations. In confirmation of this, Leonardo is involved in key initiatives covering multiple operational domains. These include collaborative air combat in the aeronautical domain, land collaborative combat with air-land integration, and next-generation soldier systems, as well as the digital ship and the naval combat cloud. The company’s contribution also extends to cyber defence solutions, interoperability in live, virtual and constructive training, and enabling technologies such as 4D multi-band radar, infrared sensors and advanced electronic components, which represent fundamental pillars for the evolution of European capabilities and the continent’s strategic autonomy. 

At the same time, the company continues to strengthen its presence in “follow-on” programmes from previous EDF editions, contributing to the continuity and maturation of the technologies developed and supporting their transition towards high-impact operational applications.