Following yesterday’s meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the British government announced that the Italian Leonardo will invest £435 million (€574 million) in the United Kingdom in the short term to upgrade the helicopter production line at the Yeovil plant, the historic seat of the British aeronautical industry, home to Westland since 1915, a company acquired by Finmeccanica in 2000 with the merger between Agusta and GKN Westland Helicopters). The money will also be used to implement high-tech laboratories for laser, radio frequency and quantum physics applications. The two heads of government also agreed that the Italian Army and Navy will take part in the patrol and exercise operations of the British Carrier Strike Group (made up of an aircraft carrier and other Royal Navy assets), planned for next year in the Indo-Pacific region. Specifically, the British plant located about 60km south of Bristol will receive about €46 million by the end of the year. Here tomorrow, Wednesday 18 September, its “Single Site Logistics Hub” plan will be launched, which aims to increase efficiency in factories. Other investments in this package will be aimed at increasing human resources by activating apprenticeship courses, developing design skills, use of robots and technologies for the three-dimensional printing of parts and components. Finally, part of the figure, approximately 30%, or just over 172 million, will support the financing of the development of the sensor part carried out by Leonardo in the United Kingdom to design and build innovative systems for the Gcap program, or the “system of different weapon systems” which also includes the sixth-generation fighter heir to the Tempest concept, which the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan are in fact developing. The request for greater digitalization of production and management of products and services for civil and military environments comes directly from customers; therefore, the Italian group must necessarily invest, also to maintain competitiveness with the Franco-German-Spanish giant Airbus Helicopter. Particular attention is therefore paid to sectors such as the supply chain, not by chance, recently, the Italian Leonardo helicopter division has encouraged small and medium-sized companies in regional aeronautical clusters (Piedmont, Lombardy, Puglia, Lazio, Sardinia, etc.), to become suppliers, including with partnership programs. And nothing excludes that the same procedure could be encouraged in the United Kingdom. The President of Leonardo in Italy, Stefano Pontecorvo, who took part in the meeting with the leaders for the part dedicated to industry, said: “It is clear that Prime Minister Starmer represents a clear change of approach for the United Kingdom towards relations with the European Union; Leonardo’s presence in Great Britain is supported by transnational collaboration at government level, which supports cooperation at industrial level. I look forward to working closely with the Prime Minister as we continue to invest in the UK and support the defense of Europe.” In the United Kingdom Leonardo is present in nine sites: Bristol, Yeovil, Southampton, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Lincoln, Luton, London and Basildon, where a total of 8,500 employees work. The impact on the related employment generates employment for approximately 12,900 people and for another 10,600 in secondary related industries, reaching a total of 31,700. As one of the largest suppliers of defence and security equipment, the Italian group makes a significant contribution to the UK economy with revenues of £2.5 billion, of which approximately 37% comes from exports.. These are divided into: 810 million from direct activities, 830 from indirect ones and 810 from induced ones. Exports from English soil go for 41% to Europe, 29% to North America, 19% to Asia, 9% to the Middle East and for the remaining percentage to the markets of Africa and South America. The activities are almost equally divided between design, customer service and production; therefore, the attention of the new Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the moves of the Italian government in the aerospace and defense sector is understandable.
