Leonardo unveils ‘Michelangelo Dome’ AI-powered shield system
Italian defense company Leonardo announces plans for an AI-powered shield for cities and critical infrastructure (Leonardo SpA and its subsidiaries)
© Leonardo SpA and its subsidiaries
Italian defense company Leonardo on Thursday unveiled plans for an AI-powered shield for cities and critical infrastructure, adding to Europe’s push to boost sovereign defense capabilities amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Dubbed the “Michelangelo Dome” in homage to Israel’s Iron Dome and U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” plans, the system will integrate multiple defense systems to detect and neutralize sea-to-air threats, including missile strikes and drone swarms.
Leonardo’s Its shares were marginally higher on Thursday, rising nearly 77% since January amid a year of steep rises in defense stocks across Europe as the region’s governments increased defense spending.
of england BAE Systems Germany’s index has increased by 42.7 percent since the beginning of 2025 Rheinmetall 148.9% and France Thales 63.8%.
Leonardo’s dome will be built on what CEO Roberto Cingolani calls an “open architecture” system, meaning it can interoperate with any country’s defense system.
“In a world where threats are rapidly evolving and increasingly complex, and where defense is more costly than attack, defense must innovate, anticipate and embrace international cooperation,” Cingolani said at an event Thursday evening.
The company aims to have the project fully operational by the end of the decade.
Protocols for exchanging data between countries and teams on the battlefield are “still quite limited,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told CNBC early Thursday, adding that it could take a decade to create Europe’s “digital battlefield.”
Europe’s defensive move
European governments quickly pledged to increase defense spending after the United States, one of the bloc’s key allies, previously threatened to increase defense spending. Reducing financial support in the region.
In May, the EU announced 150 billion euros ($173.5 million) Program to provide long-term loans to member states for defense procurement and industrial capacity. NATO members also committed in June to increase defense and security spending to 5% by 2035.
Leonardo’s introduction of the new dome system is part of an industry-wide movement that has seen leading defense companies shift “their investments from standalone hardware to integrated command architectures,” Morningstar equity analyst Loredana Muharremi told CNBC.
“Modern warfare is won by the network that can integrate each platform into a single decision cycle,” he said. “The winners will be the contractors who own the network layer, not the metal, that captures iterative upgrades and scale.”
Risks to Leonardo’s dome system include execution delays and “dependence on European purchasing cycles,” Meghan Welch, managing director of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, told CNBC.
Europe’s leading companies are also increasingly competing with the region’s emerging class of defense technology startups.
According to the Financial Times, German artificial intelligence drone startup Helsing raised 600 million euros in June and doubled its value to 12 billion euros. Quantum Systems, which also develops autonomous defense technology, announced on Friday that it tripled its valuation to over 3 billion euros, following an increase of 180 million euros.
