Dual-use tech: the Leonardo example

Similarly, the “multi-mission” AW139 helicopter is promoted for use by border patrol, VIP transport, and search and rescue and it bolsters the fleets of police forces in countries such as China, Croatia and Oman. AW139M, the military version, can be fitted with electro-optical sensors, machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket launchers, and is marketed to homeland security as well as military customers. With virtually identical technical specifications, the principal distinction between the civilian and military variants appears to be the ability to mount weapons.

The core surveillance component of these helicopters is ATOS (Airborne Tactical Observation & Surveillance), a command and control system to enable decision-making by the police or military. ATOS
integrates custom sensors, cameras and communications systems with a display to aid in situational awareness. Besides the aforementioned helicopters, ATOS can also be used in planes and helicopters produced by other companies. Buyers reportedly include the armed forces of Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia and Italy.

Another notable example of this blurring of the lines is Leonardo’s array of “dual use rated” thermal imaging cameras, which are manufactured in Britain. These include Horizon, SLX-Hawk, and SLX-Superhawk. In conflict zones, these devices allow armed forces to identify targets and threats in low-light conditions. But such is the range of their applications that readers are more likely to have encountered them on TV, since each of these cameras has also been used to film BBC wildlife documentaries.

The SLX-Hawk has been promoted for use in border surveillance, missile directors and sporting events. The camera has aided umpires during Ashes Test cricket matches and has been integrated into the Royal Navy’s Automatic Small-Calibre Gun systems.

SLX-Merlin is a thermal camera used to film the 2024 BBC series Mammals. It is not expressly marketed as dual use, though Leonardo says it has military specification and it forms part of Titan 385ES turrets, which Leonardo supplies to the RAF’s Chinook helicopters. Despite this, it is reportedly exempt from ITAR, the US Government’s defence export regulations.

The Horizon camera, which captured footage of flying squirrels for the BBC’s Autumnwatch, is geared primarily towards long-range surveillance for border patrol, police, and coastal security agencies. The camera is a component of Nerio-LR, an ultra long-range border and coastal surveillance system. Nerio-LR was displayed at the 2025 DSEI arms fair, as Corporate Watch was told, with a large video screen showing the camera stationed on the Kent coast with its sights trained on Calais and boats in the Channel. Describing the product as a dual-use system currently operated by the RAF, the company’s salesperson said the footage of the camera on the Kent coast was merely “to demonstrate capability” of the product’s range of potential applications.

Leonardo’s flagship surveillance drones, the Falco EVO and Falco Xplorer, are both explicitly marketed as dual use. They come with a broad range of possible attachments, including the Spider communications interception system so-named for its eight antennas, again manufactured in the UK. Both drones are promoted for purposes including “typical military roles”, immigration control, law enforcement, pipeline protection, and environmental monitoring. For instance, the Falco EVO has been used to observe wildfires in Spain. The Astore, an armed variant of this drone, was launched in 2023.

As with the SLX-Merlin both the Falco EVO and Xplorer are described as exempt from arms export restrictions under the US ITAR regulations. Yet the Falco line originates from early battlefield drones developed by Leonardo in the mid-1990s (Mirach 20 and Mirach 26). The drones emerged out of a then new concept of using drones for surveillance, pioneered by the Israeli army during the Israeli-Arab wars in the 1970s and 1980s, and ‘tested’ on the ground in Lebanon during Israeli operations in the Beka’a Valley.

Leonardo is one of two companies selected as part of a Frontex contract to surveil migrants in the Mediterranean, with the Falco EVO having been hired to carry out earlier drone trials and missions off the migration hotspot island of Lampedusa. The leading contractor is Israeli arms company, IAI (subcontracted by Airbus). One Leonardo employee at DSEI reported that the Falco was used to prevent illegal immigration in Africa, specifically the Congo. Although this cannot be corroborated, the device is known to have been used by the UN to monitor rebel forces in the region.

In 2024, the Cyber Security & Solutions division, a small yet rapidly growing segment, was hived off from the Defence Electronics & Security sector. One of the key products of this division is the Integrated Mobile Security System (IMSS), a surveillance van that is used for policing, border control and major event security. Equipped with a range of sensors and license plate recognition software, Leonardo claims “specific video analytics algorithms detect anomalies, such as abandoned objects, over-crowding and suspicious behaviour, or perform realtime identification by means of non-cooperative face recognition”. Leonardo sells a rugged, military equivalent, the MSS, complete with the Nerio-LR long range surveillance system.

Partnerships & programmes

Leonardo’s involvement in joint ventures is of considerable importance to the company in maintaining its position in the face of competition from US defence giants, as well as from cheaper, more accessible products sold by tech companies and startups. These include its 25% stake in MBDA, the European missile manufacturer; Eurofighter Typhoon, a joint venture with Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, responsible for the eponymous fighter jet; and Leonardo-Rheinmetall Military Vehicles (LRMV), a collaboration with Germany’s largest arms company, Rheinmetall.

Leonardo is a controlling shareholder of Telespazio, an Italian spaceflight services company and joint venture with French arms company Thales, which also manufactures dual-use technologies. One such product is Göktürk-1, an earth observation satellite co-produced with Thales Alenia Space for the Turkish Ministry of Defence, for whom it reportedly plays a “critical role” and is hailed as its “eye in the sky”. According to the European Space Agency, the satellite has a “wide range of military and civilian applications”, which include “reconnaissance, environmental monitoring, crop management, cadastral surveys, natural disaster damage assessment, and management of natural resources”. Telespazio was the prime contractor, responsible for the ground segment, launch services and data processing.

Leonardo itself has produced a range of military and civil surveillance systems for the Turkish government. The company recently announced a joint venture with Baykar, a Turkish company and one of the world’s most prolific manufacturers of unmanned vehicles. The new business, LBA Systems, will be based in Italy where it will focus on drone production.

Leonardo invests substantial amounts of money in Research & Development (€2.5bn in 2024). However, it also receives vast sums in publicly-funded research grants, regularly participating in programmes financed by the European Defence Agency, the European Defence Fund, and the Italian Ministry of Defence, as well as EU-funded research and innovation programmes such as Horizon 2020.

Between 2014 and 2020, Leonardo was particularly active in EU maritime surveillance research aimed at tackling illegal immigration and smuggling. These include SUNNY, a €14m research project into border surveillance at sea, based on a primary reconnaissance drone combined with a fleet of smaller unmanned vehicles. The researchers behind SUNNY suggested that in the future, member states would be able to adopt a fully autonomous version of the system, but that regulatory hurdles prevented this at the time. Leonardo also coordinated MARISA, an EU-funded project to develop a “data fusion toolkit” that would facilitate decision-making by navies and civil entities – such as border police and coastguards – by gathering and analysing data from a wide variety of sources, including sensors, radars, satellites and social networks. Lastly, Leonardo was awarded a contract to participate in RANGER, a project to identify and track suspect vessels at long range using radars and sensors. As a Horizon 2020 scheme, Leonardo was paid €1.3m from public funds for its participation in the latter.

In June 2020, the European Defence Agency launched the Analysis of Dual Use Synergies (ANDES) project to strengthen the research and development ties between civil and military domains “for the benefit of both sides”. It aimed to do this by developing a Dual Use Technology Transfer Mechanism (DUT2M) – essentially, jargon for ways to share technological developments across industries and companies. Leonardo was part of this initiative and has developed a special portal and team for “technology transfer”,  achieved by selling patents and patent licenses. For example, it is currently selling licenses for the use of its aiming and shooting sensors which protect the user from exposure to “enemy fire”, permitted uses for which include mounting on armoured military vehicles, police work, hunting, film-making, augmented reality and simulation purposes.

Alongside Airbus and Dassault Aviation, Leonardo is part of the Eurodrone consortium. Eurodrone is a publicly-funded project to develop a long-endurance, military-civil surveillance drone, complete with attack capabilities. It is reportedly the most expensive EU-funded defence technology project to date.

Other critical issues

Leonardo has been heavily criticised by anti-arms campaigners for selling military equipment to repressive regimes. These include Turkey (where Leonardo equipment is claimed to be used in military assaults on Kurdish groups) and Saudi Arabia (where the Eurofighter Typhoon jet is similarly claimed to have been used to bomb Yemen). Its equipment has also been been used by the Israeli army in Palestine, including for the most recent phase of the genocide. Leonardo UK manufactures the laser systems for Israel’s F-35 fighter jet from its “Laser Centre of Excellence” in Edinburgh. In a deal funded by US military aid, the company provided Israel with naval guns, which were first used on Gaza in October 2023. This prompted activists in the UK to stage actions at the company’s factories under the banner “Shut Down Leonardo”.

The company stands out for its poor track record for corruption. Between May 2017 and December 2022, Leonardo was kept “under observation” by Norway’s Government Pension Fund, whose Council of Ethics recommended this due to concerns over a lack of adequate safeguards against corruption following numerous investigations into misconduct in Korea, Algeria, Panama and India. In perhaps the most prominent of these cases former Leonardo CEO, Giuseppe Orsi, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in 2016 for bribery arising from a major Indian helicopter deal. In June 2023, it was reported that another former Leonardo CEO, Alessandro Profumo, was being investigated for bribery in a $4.5bn deal with Colombia involving the sale of military planes, ships and submarines. Profumo had previously been found guilty of fraud for his actions while he was CEO of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a major Italian bank, before his appointment to Leonardo.

People & politics

The Italian government has a significant level of control over Leonardo. It proposes who should be appointed to the company’s leadership, with its proposals generally waived through by other shareholders. Such appointments include Leonardo’s CEO and General Manager, Roberto Cingolani, who is also a senior member of the NATO Innovation Fund’s Board of Directors. Before his tenure at Leonardo, he served as Italy’s Minister for the Ecological Transition.

Chairman Stefano Pontecorvo was also appointed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He is an Italian diplomat with a 40-year career representing Italy in Pakistan, Russia, UK and the EU.

Who’s behind the brand?

Leonardo’s largest shareholder is the Italian government. The country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance currently holds just over 30% of the company’s shares.

The next largest investors are the US investment funds Capital Research and Management Co. (5%), Vanguard (3%), and BlackRock (2.3%).

APPENDIX: further examples of dual-use products

Other dual-use technologies produced by Leonardo:

• M-UGS is a network of unattended ground sensors (UGS) capable of detecting acoustic, seismic and other signals to monitor the movement of people, animals and vehicles, particularly in border areas. Leonardo says it is used by “homeland security customers for critical infrastructure protection, reconnaissance and border and battlefield surveillance requirements”.
• AWHERO  is a “military grade” helicopter surveillance drone which comes with a range of custom sensor options, such as thermal imaging cameras, electronic warfare systems, and signal intelligence devices. Described by Leonardo as dual use, it is promoted for border control, environmental monitoring, disaster relief and critical infrastructure protection. There are no reports on its buyers.
• Elsag SignalTrace is intrusive identification technology comprising a range of sensors and a vehicle license plate scanner. The license plate details are cross-referenced with other digital devices in the vehicle to create a digital fingerprint. The system is also used to identify individuals who commonly travel together, and trace their movement patterns. Devices it sources data from include “fitness trackers, smartwatches, RFID tags, and local signals from their mobile phones”. It is promoted for use by law enforcement, and while it is unknown if it is used by the military, it is plausible that it could be.
• In 2019 Leonardo invested in Skydweller Aero Inc., which is developing solar-powered uncrewed aircraft capable of carrying large payloads. According to the company, its commercial, military and law enforcement customers are planning to deploy Skydwellers to monitor drug trafficking and piracy, to provide aerial coverage of war zones and movements in contested waters, and observe illegal poaching.

Other dual-use technologies produced by Telespazio:

• Smart Eyes on the Seas (SeonSE) is a maritime surveillance platform launched in 2018. It fuses and analyses data from multiple satellite systems to identify and track vessels. SEonSE is marketed to navies, environmental regulators, the oil, gas and shipping industries, intelligence agencies, and coastguards.
• DIDIT (Distributed Detection, Identification and Tracking), is a “plug and play” drone detection system aimed at the military, law enforcement, utility and transport companies. It comprises radars, cameras, and monitoring software to autonomously identify drones and their pilots.
• Telespazio describes COSMO-SkyMed as a dual-use, Italian state-funded, multi satellite earth observation system. Both Telespazio and THALES Alenia Space were contracted to work on the system, with Thales taking the lead role in the initiative (see Thales profile).
• Telespazio is also part the EU’s Galileo dual-use satellite positioning and navigation system (see Airbus profile).
• Telespazio collaborated with IAI to produce the OptSat-3000 earth observation satellite for the Italian military, which IAI describes as being dual use (see IAI profile).