Leonardo SpA is the 13th biggest global arms company. The group has eight business sectors: military electronics, helicopters, aircraft, cybersecurity, space, uncrewed systems, aerostructures, and automation.
Leonardo made revenues of US$ 17.8 billion in 2024 with US$ 20.9 billion in orders. Previously known as Finmeccanica, Leonardo was established in 1948 as a mechanical engineering sub-holding of the Industrial Reconstruction Institute, an Italian public holding company established by Italy’s fascist regime in the 1930s to assist companies’ recovery from the Great Depression. Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance now owns 30.2 % of Leonardo shares, and over half its institutional shareholders are in the US while 15.7% are in the UK.
Leonardo employs over 60,000 people globally of which over half are in Italy, and 8,957 are in the UK across 9 sites. It has several joint ventures with other arms companies, including Thales. Leonardo’s wholly owned UK subsidiary, Leonardo UK, is a significant supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence, primarily in helicopters and defence electronics. Its UK revenues total UK£ 2.5 billion, around 37% of which are from exports.
Leonardo also has a 25% stake in MBDA Systems, a dominant missile manufacturer producing 45 land, sea and air weapon systems currently deployed in 90 armed forces around the world. BAE Systems and Airbus also own shares in MBDA.
Military aircraft
Leonardo is engaged in several joint ventures with other leading arms manufacturers to produce some of the world’s best known military aircraft.
In 2022, Leonardo launched the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) with partner companies BAE Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; each company owns a third of the programme. The programme aims to develop “next generation fighter aircraft.” Leonardo owns a 36% share of the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft programme, alongside partners Airbus and BAE Systems. Leonardo is responsible for delivering over 60% of the Eurofighter Typhoon’s on-board avionics, and is investing particularly in its facility in Newcastle, which will be central to its AI research operations.
Leonardo’s fully owned subsidiary, AgustaWestland Philadelphia, produces helicopters. Leonardo has been the main supplier of helicopters to the UK military. Its Apache attack helicopters (built under licence from Boeing) operated in Afghanistan and Libya, and in 2025 Leonardo was awarded a UK£ 293 million contract by the Ministry of Defence to its Apache fleet support and maintenance services . Its Lynx helicopters has been “a mainstay of operations by Royal Navy around the globe since the late 1970s” before being decommissioned in 2017 – they were also used in the UK’s operations in Iraq.
The T-129 attack helicopter – jointly developed by Leonardo and Turkish Aerospace Industries – has been reportedly been extensively used by Turkey in its military operations against Kurdish groups. Leonardo’s many other aircraft deals include a 2020 sale of 32 helicopters to the Egyptian military worth US$ 957 million.
Saudi Arabia
The Eurofighter Typhoon, manufactured by Leonardo with Airbus and BAE Systems, has been used by the Saudi military in its devastating attacks on Yemen over the past several years.
Leonardo’s website boasts of its four decades of partnership with Saudi Arabia, which includes the Eurofighter Typhoon, electronic systems for the Typhoon and also the Tornado combat aircraft, military drones, radios and naval systems.
In 2016, Kuwait, one of the initial participants in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, ordered 28 Typhoons from Leonardo. The first six were delivered in 2022. However, the US$ 8.7 billion deal has been mired in allegations of corruption, with two senior military officers charged in relation to the deal. Leonardo is not the subject of a judicial investigation relating to the deal.
Leonardo has responded to allegations about its business with the Saudi military, stating that activity carried out by Leonardo in either Yemen or Saudi is subject to an enhanced due diligence as part of the Monitoring of Politically Sensitive Transactions.
Gaza
Leonardo is reported to make the laser targeting system for F-35 attack aircraft, which the IDF uses extensively in its Gaza campaign. Read more about Leonardo’s extensive contributions of weaponry to the Israeli military.
Myanmar
In 2022, campaign group Justice for Myanmar reported that ATR, a joint venture of Leonardo and Airbus, had provided aircraft to the Myanmar airforce. The group alleges that the ATR aircraft was being used in a context in which the military is committing repeated grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including indiscriminate air attacks against civilians.
Sudan
An investigation by French outlet FRANCE 24 Observers team identified that Leonardo, among other European companies, was engaging in commercial contracts with Emirati state-backed Edge Group, the parent company of International Golden Group (IGG), a UAE-based weapons supplier. IGG has been cited as a supplier to the Sudanese military in an alleged breach of international sanctions.
Nigeria, Bangladesh, Malaysia
Leonardo has committed to supplying military aircraft in several further Asian and African countries recently.
In 2023, the Nigerian government was reported to have committed to buy 24 Leonardo M-346 light attack aircraft for US$1 billion. In 2024, Leonardo was reported to have previously supplied the Bangladesh military with electronic warfare equipment and military radios. That year, Leonardo was also reported to be in final negotiations with the Malaysian government to lease 28 helicopters to various Malaysian government and parastatal agencies.
Border control technologies
Leonardo also boasts of its “long standing experience in the border control sector.” Among its technical ‘solutions’ are ground surveillance radar technolgoies, thermal imaging cameras, command and control systems, helicopters, and drones.
Leonardo is reported to be one of the implementing partners of Italy-Africa deal, the Mattei Plan, a cooperation between nine African governments and Italian public and private companies to police Europe’s borders with enhanced surveillance technologies. Rights group EuroMed Rights characterised as “border control disguised as aid”. Leonardo declined to comment on the allegations.
Leonardo is a major provider of surveillance helicopters for border control in the Mediterranean, particularly through its contracts with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. Leonardo operates surveillance drones in the central Mediterranean. Leonardo was part of a consortium that received a €142 million contract in 2019 to create the EU’s “virtual walls”, according to a report by the Transnational Institute and partners. In 2017, it was awarded a €67.1 million contract with the the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to supply helicopters to EU coast-guard agencies. Leonardo jointly owns Telespazio with Thales, which is involved in the EU satellite observation projects REACT and Copernicus, used for border surveillance. In 2019 it reported that it was carrying out weekly missions on behalf of Frontex, with its Falco EVO tactical remotely-piloted aerial system. Leonardo did not respond to requests for comment from Business and Human Rights about its border control work.
Corruption and political influence
Leonardo has a long history of allegations of corruption in its international arms sales business, including in Indonesia, India, and South Korea.
In 2015, an AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter manufactured by Leonardo , was delivered to Indonesia despite being previously cancelled due to high costs (around EUR 30 million, alleged to have been inflated to provide kickbacks) and strong opposition from Indonesian authorities. The deal was marred by corruption allegations, prompting an investigation by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (Kpk). A local businessman was convicted of bribing a general involved in the deal. Neither Leonardo nor any Leonardo officials were directly implicated in the Indonesian investigation, and no related case has been instigated in Italy or Britain, however, reporting by Italian and UK journalists has raised questions as to their involvement in the deal.
In 2016, the then-CEOs of AgustaWestland, a division of Finmeccanica, the former name of Leonardo were convicted of corruption in Italy for having engaged in bribery in order to win a contract to suppy the Indian government with 12 transport helicopters. Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation overturned the charges and acquitted them in 2018.
Court documents, accessed by UK campaign group Corruption Watch UK in South Korea, show that a former Defence Secretary under Tony Blair and former manager of international business for AgustaWestland (now Leonardo Helicopters) directed the activities of a lobbyist convicted in South Korea in 2016 for ‘illegal intermediation’. The lobbyist had been used by AgustaWestland to secure the sale of Wildcat helicopters to the South Korean military and was paid directly in pounds.
Summaries of further corruption scandals allegedly involving Leonardo can be found on the Corruption Tracker website.
Campaign and legal actions against Leonardo
Because of its global prominence, Leonardo has been a frequent target for campaign actions and litigation.
For example, on 18 August 2025, protestors from campaign group Shut Down Leonardo blocked the entrance to Leonardo’s Edinburgh site over Leonardo’s alleged involvement supplying F-35 war planes to Israel. Scottish police arrested two of the protestors. The incident follows the July 2025 arrest of three women protestors under the Terrorism Act 2000 after a van was driven into a fence surrounding Leonardo’s Edinburgh site. Campaign action by CAAT has led the National Gallery to curtail its sponsorship ties with Leonardo, then Finmeccanica, in 2012.
