► Leonardo: AURIGA program for the development of the future infantry fighting vehicle kicks off

Rome, 12/06/2026 – The AURIGA (ArmoURed Infantry Ground Assault) project, an initiative for the development of the next-generation infantry vehicle, of ficially kicks off. The project, run by the consortium of the same name led by Leonardo, includes 48 companies f rom 18 European countries. The initiative is now in the phase of studying new enabling technologies, through the collection of operational requirements f rom all the Ministries of Defence involved and the identif ication of capability needs. The project, which has a duration of 36 months, is among those co-f inanced by the European Defence Fund (EDF) in 2024, and has been allocated €25 million.

The AURIGA Consortium aims to design a Next-generation Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle, aligned with the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) standardised across participating European nations in order to ensure interoperability as a design requirement, together with open, scalable, and modular architecture principles.

More specif ically, the overall ambitious goal of the Consortium is to develop the preliminary design of the AIFV architecture, the high-level design of a selected subset of technological bricks, and—using “derisking” demonstrators—to analyse their applicability to both existing and next-generation AIFV.

In addition to creating a modular system architecture capable of enabling seamless integration of new technologies into legacy platforms, the project will focus on developing state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of vehicle protection, mobility, f irepower, cybersecurity, and Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I). The goal is to strengthen the interoperability of the new vehicle with other actors in the f ield, within complex operational scenarios and f rom an increasingly multidomain perspective.

The leadership role within this project, together with its involvement in other European-wide programmes in the land def ence sector, conf irms Leonardo’s position both as a f ull provider and integrator of the most advanced defence technologies, and as a leader in the development of integrated, innovative, and fully interoperable solutions at the continental level for the lethality and command -and-control components.