Could Eurofighter power the Polish Air Force? | Lorenzo Mariani

Thank you and happy to be here with you.

As you know, Leonardo is an aerospace and defense company operating on several divisions. We design and manufacture from helicopters to aircraft and electronics for both. And we are exhibiting here at MSPO helicopters and our capability in aircraft and all that we can provide in terms of additional capabilities for those, mainly based on our electronics design, so radar, communication, and electronic warfare. This is the basis of what we can offer on the market in terms of platform.

No deal signs. You know, deals normally are announced at exhibitions but never signed. But MSPO is becoming more and more important, not only for us but worldwide and for defense companies in general. Our primary goals are on consolidating and expanding further our presence here in Poland, mainly in helicopter and in aircraft. We are proud to be partners of the Polish Air Forces since quite a long time with the 346 trainer, with 149 and 101 helicopters. We think that there is still a lot to do. We are present here in Poland with an important factory for helicopters in Swidnik, and our goal is to use also these occasions, these opportunities of fairs, to show that we are really willing to increase our presence here in the country.

Yes, it's true. Recently we have delivered the 101 helicopters and the 149, two top models of our portfolio. And these were very important contracts for us. One of them is still in progress, and we believe that everything has been done in order to be top quality for our customer.

Yes, this is our main presence here in Poland. I would like to underline that since the day we decided to invest in Swidnik, our presence has increased a lot. The workforce has increased to over 3,000 employees today. But more than this, it is not just manufacturing for the Polish market. We manufacture here in Swidnik also the fuselages for all the helicopters, 139 for example or 149, that we deliver worldwide. And I think this is very important because this is becoming really a crucial element of all our supply chain.

Eurofighter in my view is one of the greatest successes of the defense industry in Europe. As everybody knows, it's a cooperation between UK, Spain, Germany, and Italy. The aircraft is in service with those four countries plus a number of export countries, and additional export countries are going to procure, negotiations are in progress. The collaboration among BAE Systems, Airbus, and Leonardo is a very good one. The roles are well defined and really we cooperate for the success of this fantastic aircraft. In this moment, Spain, Germany, and Italy are procuring a further tranche of the Eurofighter, thus allowing a further improvement of performance and capabilities of the aircraft and to extend the operational life well beyond 2050, we at 2060. So we think it is really something that contributed significantly to build not only the air defense capabilities of Europe and of NATO but also the defense industry of Europe.

Of course, yes. We have a number of lessons learned not only from the Ukrainian conflict but also from other conflicts that unfortunately are affecting our world in this moment. The main message is that we cannot talk just about defense; we should talk about global security. Global security is by definition multi-domain, so multi-domain operation will be more and more reality and need to be more and more supported. Two elements emerge from this: one is cyber, cyber in all the spectrum of capabilities, so our systems should be secure by design, cyber is the fifth domain in this moment. The second element is space, space is going to be more and more pervasive in terms of its importance, especially and namely in the multi-domain operation.

Yes, it's one of our key projects in this moment. It was a choice of the Italian Armed Forces to replace the former Mangusta 129 helicopter with a new generation helicopter, the A249 Fenice. Development is nearly complete and we are in the qualification phase, launching the production. We believe that this will be a great success also in the export market worldwide. And of course, still always in partnership with our institutions and our Armed Forces, we really intend first to satisfy the need of our army and then to export it. It will be a key element also of the multi-domain operations that I was mentioning before.

We know that Poland needs another two squadrons of fighters, so probably around 32. We believe that Eurofighter would be a perfect solution for several reasons. One, because this fantastic aircraft, as I said before, has a deep extension of capability program that will extend life until 2050-2060, making it a real capable element of the air defense. Second, because it has already been demonstrated by the Italian Air Force how successful can be the interoperability between F-35 and Eurofighter. This has been demonstrated by force, and we believe that Polish Air Force could do the same. Third, because development of the local industry can receive a strong push by this program. We believe that more than 50% of the investment across the whole life of the Eurofighter can be localized here in Poland. Poland can be a real partner at the table where Spain, Germany, Italy, and UK are sitting at the moment. And by the way, Eurofighter is a perfect door from now to the next 10 or 15 years to enter into the sixth generation programs. The future is sixth generation, but today Eurofighter and for the next 30 to 40 years will be an important element of our defense. And this is what we are offering across all these elements to the Polish Air Forces. We believe there is space and we believe that this could be a win-win condition not only for Leonardo but also for all Poland in general.

You're welcome. Thank you, thank you.