The story
History
Foundation
Società Finanziaria Meccanica, "Finmeccanica", was established in 1948 as the mechanical engineering subholding of the state-owned Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI). Finmeccanica has held for years some historic Italian enterprises, as Alfa Romeo (automobiles), Aeritalia (aerospace) and Ansaldo (engineering).
From the 1960s to the 1980s Italy's defence and aerospace industry was split into state-holding entities: EFIM owned the helicopters manufacturer Agusta, the defence company Oto Melara and the electronic enterprise Officine Galileo. STET (another IRI subsidiary) held Selenia, Elsag and SGS Thomson, all electronic enterprises with specialisations in security and defence. In 1989, an internal IRI reorganisation process brought STET electronic enterprises to Finmeccanica, and the Aeritalia-Selenia merger constituted its aerospace subsidiary Alenia.
1990s
In 1992, EFIM was wound up because of its troubled financial situation; and Agusta, Oto Melara, Officine Galileo and Breda passed to Finmeccanica, which became one of the main Italian industrial groups. Finmeccanica, which was previously fully state owned by IRI, became partly privatised in 1993, when it was listed on the Milan Borsa Italiana stock exchange.
In 1992, Finmeccanica's Agusta became a 32% partner in NHIndustries, the prime contractor for the NH90 helicopter, along with Eurocopter (62.5%) and Fokker (5.5%).
2000s
In July 2000 Finmeccanica and the British GKN agreed to merge their respective helicopter subsidiaries (Agusta and GKN-Westland Helicopters) to form AgustaWestland. In December 2001, the missile business of Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS), a joint Finmeccanica/BAE Systems company, was merged with other European missile manufacturers to form MBDA, which became the world's second largest missile manufacturer. In July 2003 Finmeccanica and BAE Systems announced their intention to set up three joint venture companies, to be collectively known as Eurosystems. These companies would have pooled the avionics, C4ISTAR and communications businesses of the two companies.
In March 2007, BAE Systems sold its 25% share to Finmeccanica for €400 million. In January 2013 the company merged with Finmeccanica's other defence electronics companies, SELEX Elsag and SELEX Sistemi Integrati, to become Selex ES. In May 2008 Finmeccanica announced its intention to purchase the U.S. defence contractor DRS Technologies for nearly $5.2 billion. In October 2008 the sale of DRS Technologies was finalised.
2010s
During 2011–2013, Finmeccanica emails were published by WikiLeaks and Finmeccanica was subject to judicial inquiries on several fronts and management changes.
According to Finmeccanica emails published in the Syria Files release by WikiLeaks on 5 July 2012, Finmeccanica increased its sale of mobile communications equipment to Syrian authorities during 2011, delivering 500 of these to the Damascus suburb Muadamia in May 2011, after the Syrian uprising had started, and sending engineers to Damascus in February 2012 to provide training in using the communications equipment in helicopter terminals, while the uprising continued. Finmeccanica stated that the equipment sales were legal, they occurred "before the outbreak of conflict inside Syria", and the equipment "was designed for use by emergency responders" for civilian use only.
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On 12 February 2013, the chief executive, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested on corruption charges. Prosecutors alleged that he paid bribes to ensure the sale of 12 helicopters to the Indian government, when he was head of the group's AgustaWestland unit. In 2019, he was fully acquitted of all charges by the Italian judiciary.
In July 2013, the Letta government appointed former police chief Giovanni De Gennaro as Chairman of Finmeccanica. In December 2013 Finmeccanica sold 39.55% of its share capital in Ansaldo Energia to Fondo Strategico Italiano.
In the first half of 2014, Finmeccanica's new chief executive officer and General Manager Mauro Moretti started a significant process of change for the Group, both in terms of strategic choices and organisational structure. The goal was to create a more cohesive and efficient group in which all processes (research, marketing and sales, engineering, procurement, strategies and governance) are centralised and integrated and can interact each other. This encompasses the 100% owned companies of the core aerospace and defence business (AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchi, Oto Melara, Selex ES and WASS) being transformed into seven new Finmeccanica divisions. The current holding company will then become an operating company based on seven major business areas, maintaining its parent company and corporate centre function for the Group companies excluded from the model (DRS Technologies, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space, MBDA and ATR).
At the end of 2014, Finmeccanica transferred its stake in BredaMenarinibus to the newco Industria Italiana Autobus (20% Finmeccanica and 80% King Long), thereby taking a further step in the Group's portfolio rationalisation process.
In 2015, Hitachi signed a binding agreement with Finmeccanica for Hitachi's acquisition of the AnsaldoBreda business, excluding some revamping activities and residual contracts, and of the entire Finmeccanica stake in the share capital of Ansaldo STS, approximately 40% of the total capital.
FATA, another subsidiary of the Finmeccanica Group since 2004 that was not part of the core business, was sold in 2015 to the Gruppo Danieli, dealing in the production of steel plants.
On 1 January 2016, Finmeccanica became a single integrated industrial entity, that absorbed the activities of AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchi, Selex ES, OTO Melara and WASS.
From Finmeccanica to Leonardo
A company rebranding operation led by Mauro Moretti began in March 2016, with a proposal to change the company name. From 1 January 2017 Finmeccanica officially became Leonardo, a name inspired by the Italian savant Leonardo da Vinci. In March 2017 the Italian Treasury proposed that the veteran banker Alessandro Profumo replace Mauro Moretti as CEO of Leonardo. In May 2017 the Board appointed Alessandro Profumo to the role.
2020s
On 10 May 2023 the Board of Directors appointed Roberto Cingolani to the position of chief executive officer and General Manager, Stefano Pontecorvo to the role of chairman, and Lorenzo Mariani to the role of Co-General Manager. In 2025 Turkish defence firm Baykar and Leonardo decided to cooperate in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.
In December 2022, it was announced that the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan were launching a new trilateral collaboration in the form of the Global Combat Air Programme or GCAP, and that BAE Systems would be joining Leonardo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as the three prime industrial partners for the initiative. The GCAP would develop a new sixth-generation, AI- and stealth-enabled combat aircraft that would reduce dependency on US military aircraft technology.
In 2024, this was formalised as BAE Systems, Leonardo and the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co (JAIEC), which is partly funded by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to establish a joint venture company, with each holding a 33.3 per cent share in the new group, giving them an equal degree of influence over the project. In June 2026, the UK government announced that as part of the Defence Investment Plan it would commit an additional £8.6 billion in funding to GCAP over a four year period. In July 2026, Leonardo CEO Lorenzo Mariani told reports that the aircraft could enter service two years ahead of its 2035 target date.
In June 2022, Leonardo's US subsidiary, Leonardo DRS, agreed to merge with the Israeli radar and avionics systems company RADA Electronic Industries. Following the merger, Leonardo DRS became publicly listed on both the NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with RADA shareholders receiving a 19.5% stake in the combined business and Leonardo retaining the remainder.
Later that year, Leonardo DRS completed the divestment of its Global Enterprise Solutions business and its Advanced Acoustic Concepts joint venture to Thales subsidiary TDSI.
Concurrently, Leonardo S.p.A. finalized the acquisition of a 25.1% stake in the German defense electronics company Hensoldt, matching the shareholding held by the German federal government.
On 3 March 2025, Leonardo and the German Rheinmetall group established Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles (LRMV), a 50-50 joint venture based in Rome. The company was formed to bid for a €23 billion, 15-year contract to renew the Italian Army's ground vehicles, including 280 main battle tanks and 1,000 light infantry fighting vehicles. Under the joint venture agreement, the position of Chairman and CEO rotates alternatively between the two parent companies.
In 2024, Leonardo was granted a patent for technology that could frequencies in the air without decrypting them. This was later used to develop SignalTrace which was meant to be integrated and upgraded into their ELSAG ALPRs, which allowed for a database to be built that correlates bluetooth wearables, certain automotive systems and mobile devices with vehicle data for law enforcement.
In July 2025, Leonardo completed two further acquisitions: cybersecurity firm Axiomatics on 9 July, followed by IDV and Astra on 30 July for €1.7 billion.
Concurrently, negotiations began for the potential sale of the newly acquired Astra division to Rheinmetall as part of the broader LRMV framework.
In July 2026, at the Farnborough International Airshow, newly-appointed Leonardo CEO Lorenzo Mariani said that Leonardo's M-346 would be bidding in the competition to select the replacement for the BAE Systems Hawk as the Royal Air Force's fast jet trainer aircraft. In comments, Mariani said that Leonardo would be seeking additional UK industrial partners to support the bid.
Key budget items (2007–2022)
* Restated figures due to the adoption of IFRS 11, which resulted in the dissolution of the joint ventures' group.
**Restated figures as a result of the reclassification of the transport sector as a discontinued operation.
Sources:
From Wikipedia’s article on Leonardo S.p.A., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5