Roberto Cingolani is a physicist and former government minister who has served as CEO of Leonardo, Italy’s largest defence company, since May 2023. His tenure comes at an interesting time for the company – boosting Europe’s domestic arms industry is at the forefront of discussions about how the continent can free itself from an overreliance on the US. To this end, president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced plans to launch an €800bn defence fund to rearm the bloc’s membership. The vast majority of this has been earmarked to be spent with EU companies, meaning that Leonardo is set to receive a windfall. Cingolani, who previously served as Italy’s minister of ecological transition under prime minister Mario Draghi, has already presided over positive financial results, with net profit up 63 per cent in 2024 and total revenue peaking at €17.8bn. Monocle sits down with Cingolani on the seventh floor of Leonardo’s HQ in Rome’s Prati neighbourhood to discuss the US, Vladimir Putin and how Europe can strengthen itself militarily. 

How big can Leonardo become?    
I was very clear with investors when I introduced last year’s industrial plan: this is not a single company show. Leonardo is in a strong position because it can create hardware, develop artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and invest in space. We have most of the components of the puzzle. But in order to be self-sufficient, you need to be a big company. Look at the competitors in the US. In Europe, the size of major defence companies is smaller, so I don’t think it’s right for businesses to aim for being totally self-sufficient. We have to make alliances. We have to create European giants that make the most of the synergy between different defence companies. What we did with Rheinmetall [a joint venture to make tanks], GCAP [the sixth-generation fighter jet programme] and Baykar [drones] was all part of this effort.

You have said that you don’t think it’s the US’s role to protect Europe. Are you pleased with the reaction from the EU, which is increasing its defence spending?      
I don’t believe that this is a game of the US versus Europe. Let’s be very clear: American taxpayers have said that they “don’t want to pay taxes to defend Europe from problems that it has on its border”. This is reasonable.

Did the taxpayer say that or did Donald Trump?      
This is common sense from US taxpayers. Of course, Mr Trump said this in a very colourful way but it is a reasonable argument, without any ideology behind it. Again, it’s common sense for Europe to say, “Ok, we are the second-largest investor in global defence procurement but most of our taxpayer money is going on buying American platforms. We should invest more. If we invest more, we should let our industry grow and have more European products.” And the reason is not to compete; competition between the US and Europe is stupid.

You’re in a strange situation because you profit from global insecurity.      
Because we’re in defence. It’s similar to during the coronavirus pandemic when companies were profiting from anti-bacterial masks. Unfortunately, this is life but I like to look at the long term. We all hope that the war in Ukraine will end. Investments in security must grow when the defence sector starts to slow down. 

One day you will only provide security products, then?   
Leonardo’s business – as with all defence companies – is not only about weapons and bullets. It must be about more than that. There will always be a Putin invading another country. We have to be ready to stop the world’s future Putins. Secondly, there will always be cyber or terrorist attacks and a need to protect infrastructure. I hope that one day we will not sell weapons but security tools, infrastructure-monitoring services and technologies to protect communication. It’s impossible for all humans to be good, so we will always need security.