ELT Group 2025: orders growth, expanded products portfolio and international footprint
2025 confirmed itself as a year of growth for ELT Group with a 700 M€ orders volume equal to an over 47% increase compared to 2024, maintaining the positive trend of last years. The Rome-based group is also expanding its international footprint to directly support worldwide customers, as well as empowering its products portfolio, alongside manufacturing and supply chain capabilities to cope with expanded CEMA (Cyber ElectroMagnetic Activities) operations and compressed-time delivery requirements
“2025 has proven to be a very important year for our company. It is not only the numerical results that give us satisfaction, but above all the confirmation that our vision, outlined in the Tenet strategic plan, has proven to be perfectly aligned with the current needs of the defence market in addressing the new challenges of deterrence,” Domitilla Benigni, CEO & COO of ELT Group, said.
“We have been expecting this growth, but it was more time compressed than expected,” Domitilla Benigni continued, adding that the challenges for the next years will be to produce and deliver on time alongside providing the customers a strong local support. 2025 confirms itself as a growth year for ELT Group with an order volume of 700 M€, an over 47% increase compared to the around 470 M€ of 2024. A growth orders trend which is expected to continue with a forecasted €2.01 billion for the three-year period 2025-2027 compared to the €1.11 billion for 2022-2024. Revenues for 2025 are estimated in 370 M€. The ELT Group workforce is also expected to continue growing from current 1.230 with additional 300 personnel in 2026 and more in the future.
Looking to the order split in 2025, 25% comes from consortia-based contracts including the Eurofighter combat aircraft and NH90 helicopter families alongside the new sixth generation fighter platform under the GCAP (Global Combat Air Programme) programme. Also raising are the domestic contracts which total 30% while the remaining come from the international arena (27%) and the logistic sector (18%). “After a long period of low reactivity, the European market based on consortia solutions returned to raise. The Eurofighter programme is encountering a second youth both in Europe and outside the Old Continent. The same applies to the NH90; this helicopter is being upgraded to maintain the technological edge, while opportunities for new-build aircraft appear on the market. The future in the airborne segment is represented by the GCAP platform programme to which ELT Group is participating through the GCAP Electronic Evolution joint venture together with MELCO (Mitsubishi ELectric COrporation), Leonardo and Leonardo UK. The domestic market has also returned to grow with contracts in all the domains. In the international sector, the contracts are split mainly between Middle East and Far East while the logistic ones are distributed among main programmes in all domains,” the CEO and COO of ELT Group explained.
“We have demonstrated foresight in anticipating major market and product evolutions, starting from the central role that the EMSO (ElectroMagnetic Spectrum Operations) dimension would assume; foresight in investing for over ten years in both cyber and counter-drone solutions; and, more recently, in observation and defence solutions for space and in unmanned systems, as well as in focusing on continuous innovation in proprietary technologies across traditional and new domains in artificial intelligence (AI), space, and data security,” she explained. “This allows us to be recognized today as an excellence: this is highlighted by the fact that Europe has identified EW (Electronic Warfare) and cyber as priority capability gaps in which to invest, and it is further confirmed by the recent “non-paper on hybrid warfare” by Minister Crosetto.”
ELT Group will also continue to expand the local support to costumers, a key attitude which allowed the group to establish long-term relationships in important regions such as the Middle East, the company CEO underlined. “We have recently established a new company branch in the UK and the representative office in Qatar will become a branch. The latest opening regards a representative office in Indonesia that was decided just before the 2025 results conference,” she unveiled. This in addition to ELT Group Deutschland, ELTHUB, CY4Gate and E4Life in Italy, alongside ELT Group KSA in Saudi Arabia and Solyn ELT Group in the US, and other representative offices in Egypt, UAE, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Berlin, Belgium, France, and Spain. The long-term relationship with the UAE, where the integrated logistic support hub with local Etimad Group (EDGE Group) is developing, were further deepened recently with the signature of an important memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the same EDGE Group for the establishment of a joint venture in the country. In Saudi Arabia, in addition to the local company, in 2025 ELT Group has signed important cooperation agreements with SAMI (Saudi Arabian Military Industries) and Shamal, alongside the KAUST (King Abdullah University Science and Technology) University. In the Republic of Singapore ELT has signed an MoU with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) to advance collaboration in the co-development of defence technologies for the Singapore Armed Forces. Finally, in Italy ELT Group has partnered with the US L3Harris group to establish a multi-sensor test facility for commercial, military and government programmes.
In this fast-running technological development to keep up with new threats and requirements, the ELT Group is continuing to invest in research, development (R&D) and innovation as one of the keys of its success. “In our long-term vision we have to increase these investments; in 2024 they stood at 50 M€ while in 2025 they increased to around 70 M€ and this trend will further raise in 2026,” she explained, adding that not all projects are self-funded, some money coming also from domestic and European sources. “ELT Group was very good in participating together with other companies and to win seven calls of the European Defence Fund (EDF), positioning ourselves among the most important players.” The ELT Group has also obtained R&D contracts from the European Space Agency, “an expected achievement until recently,” thanks to the investments in the Scorpio Low Earth Orbit (LEO) SIGINT payload and protection of space-originated navigation capabilities.” In addition to the Italian military R&D programme participation, the company was also able to obtain from the National Underwater dimension Hub or Polo Nazionale della dimensione Subacquea (PNS) a leading project called SIRENA (Soluzione Integrata per Ricostruzione Elettroacustica Nazionale) for the development of an advanced synthetic aperture sonar (SAR) solution for underwater operations.
Exploiting the latest developments in the growing product portfolio, the CEO and COO of ELT Group started from the Space and High Altitudes domain for which a family of SIGINT payloads was developed starting with the Scorpio LEO which was launched into space in March 2023. This led to the dedicated SHARP payload for high-altitude unmanned platforms. ELT Group is also working on the anti-SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Zenithal Jammer, which first tests are expected soon. As anticipated, based on the decade experience acquired with the Adrian system, ELT Group has developed a new generation family of Counter Unmanned Air Systems (CUAS) with applications in both the maritime and land domains. The company has installed a stand-alone system on board an operational Italian Navy FREMM frigate while the one fully integrated with the combat management system is under development for the FREMM Evo platforms.
The advanced land-based CUAS portfolio includes the ADRIAN (Anti-Drone Interception Acquisition Neutralization) on-the-move configuration as well as the most advanced and innovative solution Karma capable to work without radar, and therefore silent from an electromagnetic point of view. The ELT Group is also proposing the land-based TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare System), a powerful integrated Electronic Warfare/SIGINT system of systems which already found domestic and international success. Combining EWC2, ESM/ELINT, CESM/COMINT, radio-frequency and communications ECM, the TWES has attracted strong interest for ground based air defence applications. Among the airborne avionics solutions, the company representatives also highlighted the latest generation DIRCM (Directional Infrared CounterMeasures) ELT/577 based on Quantum Cascade Laser technology which has already found sales success. This in addition to the core of ELT Group product portfolio including self-protection and electronic attack solutions, all managed by a command-and-control capability for analysis and decision support, which can be found in all the domains. The company has also long experiences in the CEMA operations thanks also to its CY4Gate company and the ELT Group advanced products. It is also applying AI to its products to further enhance their capabilities, as already done with two innovative projects; the Virtual & Extended Reality for Maintenance and Training alongside the Maintenance & Customer Service Knowledge Management projects that were completed thanks to the AI integration with augmented reality and virtual reality, she explained.
“We don’t want to compete with AI developers, but we want to use the best of it through partnerships with companies specialized in this sector,” she underlined. This in addition to academia, multidomain operational and training centres that allow customers to develop their own countering capabilities.
Few information was released on the awarded contracts. Among the consortia orders, ELT Group gained advantage of the new Eurofighter Typhoons procurement contracts, EDR On-Line understood, referring to the Spanish Halcon 2 and Italian MoD programmes.
Regarding the domestic market, ELT Group received orders for the new ESM/RWR equipment to be installed on the Leonardo C-27J Spartan tactical transport fleet and EDR On-Line understood also for additional EW suites installed on board the HH-101A CSAR and special operations helicopter fleet. In the naval domain, the company gained contracts for the EW suite of the 8th and 9th PPA/MPCS acquired by the Italian Navy to replace the same class two ships sold to Indonesia, and the fourth U212 NFS boat. The company also mentioned rotary-wing programmes, which EDR On-Line understood being related to ESM/ELINT suites for upgrading activities, no platform being mentioned. The TEWS and other land-based solutions could find application as part of the “Michelangelo Dome”, recently presented by Leonardo, ELT Group representatives confirmed to media.
International orders include the EW suites for the two Fincantieri PPA/MPCSs sold to Indonesia alongside contracts for undisclosed customers in every domain, in particular the ground segment, in the Far East and the Gulf area. Through the collaboration with Rohde & Schwarz, which is evolving in a strategic partnership for all the domains, ELT Group provides EW systems for the German Navy’s F124 frigates modernisation project and the Polish Navy’s Miecznik-class multirole frigates under construction. Last June, ELT Group and EDGE of the UAE also signed a strategic cooperation letter to advance discussions on the supply of EW systems for the Kuwait’s missile boats to be delivered by EDGE Group’s Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) company.
The ELT Group continues to grow also in the logistic sector, with over 100 M€ contracts figure and an expanding product portfolio for both operational support and data collection and analysis.
To cope with the new market requirements and the need to develop and produce in a faster way, ELT Group has established a new industrial model alongside an expanding workforce. In the last five years ELT Group has grown by 40% in terms of personnel, has expanded the production capabilities and reinforced the supply chain. “The ELT Group personnel has grown from 800 to 1,230 employees of which 43% engineers, 32% dedicated to operations, 13% to staffing and 12% to business. In 2025, we have collected 216 people and the best way to do it was opening company sites around Italy to overcome the transferring issues. We have opened sites in Milan and Naples which have grown and will grow in the near future, alongside another site to be opened soon in southern Italy,” all this taking additional 300 personnel in 2026. With components direct procurement increasing from 100 M€ in 2024 to 210 M€ in 2025, ELT Group needed not only to beef up but also qualify and sustain the supply chain which is increasing from around 350 to 760 suppliers. ELT Group is also continuing to invest in the new production lines equipment as well as specialized personnel for production activities.
“This growth plan is impacting not only on the Rome-based site but also on controlled companies, which will be involved in the production expansion, such as ELTHub and ELT Deutschland to which we are going to transfer work alongside skills and assets, making them growing alongside the Rome site,” Domitilla Benigni concluded.
Gtaphics courtesy ELT Group, photos by L. Peruzzi
