Thanks to artificial intelligence, the system selects the least expensive weapon to neutralize each threat, avoiding wasting million-euro missiles against swarms of cheap drones. It is already ready and will be tested in Ukraine
On the first day of the war Iran launched 350 ballistic missiles and 800 drones over Gulf countries and Israel. If Italy and Europe were targeted by a similar number of bombs they would suffer very serious damage and many human losses because there is not a sufficient defensive “shield”. «There are air defense systems, but not total coverage, both on the national side, but above all if we look more extensively at the area of responsibility of the Bornwith reference to the countries on the southern flank of the alliance”, is the alarm launched on 21 May last year by General Luciano PortolanoChief of Staff, before the Defense Committee of the House.
Gianandrea Gaianidirector of Defense Analysis, explains to Panorama that «all European countries have a great lack of defense against drones and ballistic missiles. The wars in Ukraine and Iran are demonstrating the need for cutting-edge tools, but also for a large amount of ammunition.” Portolano had highlighted that “we have started the procurement of further Aster 15, Aster 30, Aster 30 B1 NT” capable of intercepting hypersonic missiles and the new surface-to-air defense systems will be equipped Samp-twhich will enter service by 2026. In Kuwait, however, we suffered Iranian attacks, which destroyed one of our drones and the Samp-t battery had already been moved to Ukraine.
Italy designs Michelangelo for sovereign air defense
Last May the Chief of Defense Staff confirmed that Italy wants to equip itself with a missile defense shield like theIron Dome Israeli: «It is one of the minister’s priorities Crosetto». On November 27, the CEO of Leonardo, Roberto Cingolanihe presented Michelangelo – The Security Domean advanced system of integrated defense of drones and missiles, which will be delivered to the Defense in 2027-2028, with a first architecture called anti-drone “dead zone”, but will be tested at the end of the year on the Ukrainian front.
A totally innovative system that aims to integrate with the defenses of other European countries. “Our idea is to build an open architecture that can fend off both threats: saturation threats and those from fast, ballistic or hypersonic missiles,” he said. Crawlers on March 26 in Repubblica, in the midst of war with Iran. «In the first case we work on the “dead zone”, an area where nothing can penetrate, defended with fast artillery, radar and vision systems. For long-range missiles the response is more complex: satellites, long-range radar, advance tracking and real-time choice of the best countermeasure.”
Artificial Intelligence and Kill Web against hypersonic threats
Michelangelo it is a system that provides for simultaneous defense, thanks to the interconnection between all domains, sky, earth, sea and space, with impenetrable cyber protection and the fundamental support of an advanced system of artificial intelligence. Not a chimera from a distant future, but something tangible and integrated with other European systems by 2030. In simulations, missiles have already been intercepted 76 kilometers from the target. By June the “innovative capabilities to manage drones” will be demonstrated by participating in exercises Born.
Crawlers perhaps he will not see the launch of the flagship of Leonardo. Former minister of the Ecological Transition of the Draghi government, he would be in the hot seat in the imminent renewal of an avalanche of appointments in public companies. At the time Panorama goes to press, in a short list of alternative candidates shared by Giorgia Meloni with the deputy prime ministers Antonio Tajani And Matteo Salvinitwo names on the short list. One is that of Gian Piero Cutillomanaging director of the group’s Helicopter Division since October 2017. The other is that of Lorenzo Marianiformer co-general manager of the Italian defense giant, then diverted from 2025 to the development of the joint venture (Mbda) between Airbus, Bae Systems and Leonardo itself in the missile systems sector. It may be a coincidence, but Mariani’s press conference on MBDA, scheduled for some time on April 9th, was postponed, at the last moment, to the 20th. That same day Leonardo it lost 8.5% on the stock market, only to then rebound.
Diplomatic tensions and the issue of technological sovereignty
The project Michelangeloindependent and innovative, would have caused some diplomatic tension with the United States and Israel. American anti-missile systems such as the Patriot and the Israeli one Arrow they are considered “closed” and are sold en bloc to the allies with all components, radar, command software and interceptors. Michelangeloalthough inspired by the Iron Shield of the Jewish state, is versatile, open to other European systems and not dependent on Israeli or American technology. In practice a national and sovereign defense system.
Not only that: the extension of Michelangelo to the wider Mediterranean, including the protection of vital energy routes, after the Houti threat on the Red Sea which caused merchant traffic from Suez to be halved, is not looked upon favorably by Israel. The national cloud expected from Leonardo for the management of sensitive defense data, including tactical and strategic information, bypasses infrastructures controlled by non-European allies. Also the testing of Michelangelowhich will be entrusted to the Ukrainians with Italian staff already on site to identify the “critical area”, has raised some doubts in the government team.
«The first component of the Michelangelo Dome it is currently under construction for our Ukrainian partners,” he said Crawlers on March 12. Michelangelo in any case it doesn’t stop, as the CEO explained: «We have a dedicated team that is working with over twenty countries» that «can bring together their own assets, even different ones. Planes, ships, missile batteries from different manufacturers are made interoperable by a common communication system.” The advantages are both in terms of costs and implementation times. Michelangelo it is able to federate existing defenses, guaranteeing even “small and medium-sized countries the possibility of using a common system”. And above all, the aim is not to waste interceptor missiles worth millions of euros, but rather less expensive weapons to stop 98% of drones. Michelangelo aims to intercept all threats: air and missile, including hypersonic carriers and swarms of drones, but also attacks from surface and sub-sea level naval units. The multi-domain defense architecture introduces the concept of “kill web” (destruction network) that is, any sensor, from the orbiting satellite, to the radar, to the drone or other ground detection systems, can provide data on the incoming danger.
THE’Artificial intelligenceprocessing a huge volume of data, on the order of hundreds of terabytes per second, calculates the trajectory of threats, including hypersonic missiles traveling at over 5 km per second, and automatically selects the most effective and least expensive weapon available to stop them. Shooting down a drone worth a few tens of thousands of euros with a 1 million missile is economic madness. And what’s more, the use of predictive algorithms allows you to Michelangelo to «anticipate hostile behavior and optimize operational decisions» according to Leonardo.
A satellite constellation and new ground and naval radars will be able to detect a missile upon launch and will guarantee the protection of the shield with new artillery and laser weapons systems. The most innovative “heart” of the shield is the MC5 module designed to be inserted into existing, even obsolete, tactical command and control systems operating on the ground, at sea or in the sky. Crawlers is convinced that in collaboration with the Armed Forces, Michelangelo «it can become the first open defensive shield model in the world» generating 21 billion euros in the next 10 years». On 9 December, before the Defense commissions of the House and Senate, General Portolano underlined that «the national “Dome” is a project with a strong strategic value». And confirmed the assiduous meetings with Leonardo «to clearly define the operational needs that this “protection dome” must have to guarantee total coverage of the national territory».
