Michelangelo Dome: a key enabler of Leonardo business
During the presentation of the Leonardo Industrial Plan 2026-2030, the company CEO, Roberto Cingolani provided more details about the Michelangelo Dome, the layered air defence system unveiled last November, and how the latter will be instrumental to the growth of the group, enabling an estimate €6 billion business opportunities in the 2026-2030 period, followed by €15 billion in the 2031-2035 timeframe
Since its unveiling in November 2025, the Michelangelo Dome concept and connected development programme is running at full pace, according to the Leonardo CEO, to catch with the requests coming from crisis and war-like scenarios such as those encountered now in the Middle East and Ukraine. “To date, we have ongoing discussions with more than 20 countries interested in our solution,” Cingolani unveiled, and more are expected, he added.
“The platform creates a dynamic security dome capable of detecting, tracking and neutralizing threats even in the event of large-scale attacks, across all operational domains,” the Leonardo CEO reiterated during the presentation.
Characterized by a modular design and open architecture, the Michelangelo Dome is based on a distributed joint all domain C2, empowered by a newly designed C5I module, known as MC5, which shall be “plugged in” all tactical C2, sensors and effectors sub-systems, allowing multi-domain orchestration through reduced latency links, additional sensitive data sharing, and AI-assisted data distribution and synchronization, to speed up the decision-making process, under a cyber secure global network. In essence, as Cingolani highlighted, the Michelangelo Dome enables the transition from a “kill chain” to a “kill web” operational concept, hence, from the “one sensor, one shooter” approach to the “any sensor, best or any shooter” one.
“Thanks to a truly transversal one-company solution, Leonardo has a full products portfolio to rapidly identify emerging risks, continuously tracking and take timely and decisive action to neutralize the threat and protect critical assets,” Leonardo CEO said, the system being of course open to third party bubble-type protection systems and their subsystems.
Anticipating questions from the audience, Cingolani underlined that Leonardo would make money with the new solution not through the procurement of hardware – even if Leonardo is a key provider of it – but through services connected to the solution. “…a contract for service, for cyber security, for contents update. You know the threats are evolving monthly,” he highlighted, adding that Leonardo solution will evolve at a similar pace. To satisfy the urgent requests coming from the market, Leonardo is running at full pace with important research and development fundings devoted to the programme.
Ukraine
“I can’t say more, but the first component of the Michelangelo Dome …. is now under production for our friends in Ukraine. The first test will be there in a real environment. Delivery is supposed to be before year end. Don’t ask me more,” Cingolani said, adding that such a quick delivery proves the company approach is effective.
In term of programme milestone and deliverables, Leonardo unveiled that by the end of 2025, “we demonstrated the interception and neutralization of a ballistic missile at 76 kilometres from the target, in one of those simulation we conducted with the (Italian MoD and) Army.”
MUM-T trials
Leonardo will conduct the first demonstration flight later this year pairing its M-346 platform with two representative collaborative combat aircraft.
“In mid-2026, we are going to demonstrate the first ‘War Case’,” Cingolani said, highlighting the capabilities requested by the market. “We will fly a mother aircraft represented by our M-346 light attack fighter aircraft governing adjunct unmanned fighters. The latter platforms are jointly produced with our colleagues in Baykar. They will be operated directly by the mother aircraft. Incidentally, you understand that this is not a 6th generation fighter. This is a standard fighter,” Cingolani unveiled. The first test is planned around April-May and will not be publicised, while the second one later in the year will be made public, Cingolani said responding to media.
Leonardo is partnered with the Turkish company via the LBA Systems joint venture, which covers activities including the future component production of Kizilelma uncrewed fighters in Grottaglie, Italy. Although no detail was provided on the type on unmanned platform, the single-engine Kizilelma would be the natural choice. In 2025, the platform conducted the first test engagement using beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.
“While we wait for the (future) 6th generation fighter, we can already provide the customers adjuncts that can be operated in conjunction with existing aircraft,” Cingolani noted.
“So, the concept is, while we wait for the 6th generation fighter, which is, by the way, the frontier in the next decade, we can already provide capabilities to customers that don’t have the opportunity to buy large platforms, as Leonardo can provide such capability operating in conjunction with existing aircrafts,” Cingolani unveiled.
Dead Zone trials
In the second half of 2026 Leonardo will conduct the trials of the inner-most layer of Michelangelo Dome integrated defence, the “Dead Zone”. The latter is a high-precision point-defence solution to protect critical assets, capable of rapidly neutralizing low-flying and hard-to-detect threats, including massive swarms of drones. It will see the use of the land-based version of the Leonardo well-known 76/62 mm Super Rapido and the new Marlin 40 mm naval gun alongside the 30 mm X-Gun mounted on vehicles, known as Hystrix, which exploit company-developed guided and smart munitions.
BMD and IAMD
In 2027, some of the Leonardo Michelangelo Dome elements will be initially involved in a NATO ballistic missile defence field trial exercise, which Cingolani hasn’t identified but EDR-Online understood being the Alliance Formidable Shield exercise, and later in an integrated air missile defence C2 trial. “In the meantime, we are developing all the command-and-control layer and the MC5 plug-in module. Our electronic and cyber security teams are working full time on this development,” Cingolani underlined.
According to the presentation slide regarding the Michelangelo Dome roadmap, Leonardo will reach initial operational capability with the MC5 and All Domain C2 along with national legacy sensors and effectors integration by the end of 2027, confirming the tight schedule presented during the concept unveiling in November 2025. In the meantime, the group will start working on the integration of Michelangelo with other countries systems since 2026-end. The full operational capability (FOC) for all the MC5 and All Domain C2, along with the next generation sensors and effectors and NATO and EU systems full integration, is scheduled for late 2030. The same slide also unveiled the development and timeframe for establishing the first proprietary constellation for the Earth observation, known as Space Guardian, which is described in a separate article.
“We estimate approximately €21 billion in the next decade [coming from Michelangelo Dome], with €6 billion in the 2026-2030 plan, and €15 billion in the 2031-2035 timeframe,” the Leonardo CEO concluded.
Graphics courtesy Leonardo, photo by P. Valpolini
