Leonardo unveils ‘Michelangelo Dome’ AI-powered defend system

Italian protection firm Leonardo on Thursday unveiled plans for an AI-powered defend for cities and significant infrastructure, including to Europe’s push to ramp up sovereign protection capabilities amid rising geopolitical tensions.

The system, dubbed the “Michelangelo Dome” in a nod to Israel’s Iron Dome and U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans for a “Golden Dome,” will combine a number of protection methods to detect and neutralize threats from sea to air together with missile assaults and drone swarms.

Leonardo’s shares had been marginally increased Thursday and is up round 77% since January, amid a yr of steep rises for protection shares throughout Europe because the area’s governments have hiked protection spending. 

The UK’s BAE Techniques rose 42.7% for the reason that begin of 2025, Germany’s Rheinmetall 148.9% and France’s Thales 63.8%.

Leonardo’s dome might be constructed on what CEO Roberto Cingolani known as an “open structure” system that means it could actually function alongside any nation’s protection methods.

“In a world the place threats evolve quickly and develop into ever extra complicated — and the place defending is costlier than attacking — protection should innovate, anticipate and embrace worldwide cooperation,” stated Cingolani, throughout an occasion on Thursday night.

The corporate is focusing on the undertaking being totally operational by the tip of the last decade.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury informed CNBC earlier on Thursday that the protocols to trade information between nations and groups on the battlefield had been nonetheless “nonetheless fairly restricted,” including it might take a decade to construct out Europe’s “digital battlefield.”

European governments have quickly dedicated to elevated protection spending because the U.S., a key ally for the bloc, has beforehand threatened to cut back monetary assist within the area. 

In Could the EU introduced a 150 billion euro ($173.5 million) programme to supply long-term loans to member states for protection procurement and industrial capability. NATO members additionally dedicated to rising protection and safety spending to five% by 2035 in June.

Leonardo’s unveiling of its new dome system is a part of a sector broad transfer from main protection primes that is seeing them shift “funding from standalone {hardware} to built-in command architectures,” Loredana Muharremi, fairness analyst at Morningstar informed CNBC. 

“Fashionable warfare is gained by the community that may combine each platform into one determination cycle,” she stated. “The winners would be the contractors that personal the community layer, not the metallic, which seize recurring upgrades and scale.”

Dangers to Leonardo’s dome system embody execution delays and “dependency on European procurement cycles,” Meghan Welch, managing director at Brown Gibbons Lang & Firm informed CNBC.

European primes are additionally more and more competing with an rising class of protection tech startups within the area.

German AI drone startup Helsing raised 600 million euros and doubled its valuation to 12 billion euros in June, the Monetary Instances reported. Quantum Techniques, which additionally develops autonomous protection tech, introduced Friday it has tripled its valuation to above 3 billion euros after a 180 million euro increase.