Leonardo has announced robust UK hiring figures and strong overall financial performance for 2024, according to a press release.
The companyās British subsidiary, Leonardo UK, hired 1,400 new employees last year, including 450 on early careers programmes such as its top-rated Apprenticeship scheme.
This expansion is attributed to ongoing growth in combat air projectsāincluding participation in the Eurofighter Typhoon and Tempest/Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP)ārotorcraft production in Yeovil, and an uptick in cyber security work.
With sites spread across the country, including a new facility in Newcastle opened in October 2023, Leonardo is reported to contribute Ā£2.5 billion to the UKās GDP.
Highlighting the broader success, Leonardoās Board of Directors revealed its preliminary 2024 financials, which show increases across orders, revenues, and EBITA, alongside higher free operating cash flow.
āThe 2024 preliminary results demonstrates the economic, financial, and industrial strength of Leonardo,ā said Roberto Cingolani, the Groupās CEO and General Manager, as quoted in the press release. He noted āthe strong performance of the Defense and Security segment, coupled with acceleration of the savings planā as key factors, despite external challenges in certain manufacturing areas.
Sustainability also featured prominently in the annual results, with the company reporting progress in workforce diversity and reduced emission intensitiesāachieved partly through higher renewable energy usage. Leonardoās investment in R&D, exceeding ā¬2.4 billion, supports advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence, data fusion, and uncrewed rotorcraft technology.
These initiatives underpin Leonardo UKās ability to contribute to international programmes like the Eurofighter Typhoon and GCAP, as well as to strengthen its cyber security solutions.
Leonardoās order backlog has surpassed ā¬44 billion, ensuring continuing momentum say the firm. The company plans to share updates on its Industrial Plan in March, signalling further development in aerospace, defence, and security markets both in the UK and worldwide.
At the UK Defence Journal, we aim to deliver accurate and timely news on defence matters. We rely on the support of readers like you to maintain our independence and high-quality journalism. Please consider making a one-off donation to help us continue our work. Click here to donate. Thank you for your support!
I’d imagine Trump is putting a lot of pressure on Japan to leave GCAP and just buy American. Even more urgency to get all the contracts set in stone and get the project moving at speed.
As far as I know there was never a market for An American export version, just like F22. Hence Japan started on their own project, later joining the UK and Italian GCAP FCAS or whatever it is know as.
Tempest could well turn out to be a cornerstone in the future of aviation post Trump.
Would Japan not be considering Trump’s latest moves and be wary too? After all, who says Trump’s America would defend Japan either if it came to it? As is, Japan has more weight in GCAP with us than they would in NGAD, which AFAIK is having issues because the USAF are rethinking what they want it to be, or F/A-XX which will be specced to what the USN wants with little regard for what other nations want.
The Hegseth wants 8% āefficiencyā savings next year alone and Elon hates the F35. NGAD is dead for both services until at least 2029.
Seeing as the USA seems to be re-focusing on the Asia Pacific region, and Japan resides there I can’t see an issue with the USA not contributing to their defence.
The issue is really if the U.S. weakens itself by cutting defence spending and by essentially losing the backing of 23% of the wealth and industrial capacity of the planet as well as seemingly politically weak and strengthing chinas key ally..when you know a core part of chinas mission is removing US influence from the western pacificā¦do you really want to be the western most bastion of that..or do you put your head down and play the neutral cardā¦
Because the present road the US is going down is making a SINO US war very likely indeed ( china was almost there but it alway had to decide if I could actually take on and win against the whole of NATO as well as Japan and Australia etc in a long indopacific warā¦were as nato is now almost out of the equation) and Japan is going to be the nation thatās essentially going to get flattened by a superpower and its close ally that are both within 500 miles of it..if china decided its inevitable that Japan sides with its enemy the USā¦the problem for Japan is the US is 6000 miles from Japanā¦
Itās a profoundly difficult issue for Japan because it can only really win by ensuring it does not get attacked by china..and if a Sino US war becomes inevitable it losses no matter who āwinsā.
Unfortunately the only real way to manage china was for the whole of the western world to make it clear that if it put a foot wrong the entire western world was going to descend on itā¦that was a true deterrent that was just about holding china backā¦Trump has blown that away.
Donāt worry about America, once the Donald secures all the minerals he needs the USA will be fine. I still have no idea why a guy who claims to hate renewable energy and electric vehicles wants minerals. Perhaps Elon will use them to build a āgiant freekin Laserā to destroy the moon before China gets there.
It has been reported that the US has reassured Japan and South Korea that the US intends to strength defence ties in the region. Given the China was on Trump’s tariff I think the US is trying to clear the decks in the West so they can focus on the East.
Might be good news for AUKUS or not..?
Cheers CR
Paul from what we are hearing from insiders Trump wants to form something like the old Roman triumvirate to cut up the World between them. The Kremlin certainly are claiming thatās what Trump offered and Putin replied to the effect about time this is what I have been telling for yearsā . Similar assessments have come from other US sources, mostly as warnings. Where does Japan lay in this āplanā I doubt they are taking for granted they unsalable as it has been stated similarly for some time now about Taiwan to win Xi over as he is Putin now. Putin of course occupies Japanese islands too. That leaves Japan exposed on two fronts as there are islands claimed by Taiwan (thus China too) and Japan as their island chain overlaps. Itās why Japan and South Korea despite previous hate and distrust are trying to forge a defence agreement. Really think Japan can rely on the US or believes it after recent events?
Trump is purely interested in economic issues beyond US defence though the former completely undermines the latter but do you think Trump cares or even sees it? He sees conflict in Europe gives the US the opportunity to as in 1940 make money selling weapons to one or both sides. It takes Europe out of competition economically to it as would a conflict in South East Asia take out another competitor to threaten the US or his proposed Triumvirate. He knows the US canāt stop China so he is willing to sell out any and everyone to stay part of the pie. His actions already indeed have ensured BRICS will win he has decided allies are irrelevant to the US being part of this New World Order so Europe and others need to work fast to counter it. Thankfully even Republicans are beginning to rise up against Trump and Musks increasingly illegal āanticsā especially as their popularity flatlines. Trump is now at -7 the worst ever rating since polls began so a race between him and Musk taking control of all aspects of Governance ie dictatorship. or their power will increasingly cut off by the other legs of Govt. Will depend upon how quickly the Republicans grow a pair.
A Republican that opposes Trump at this juncture opposes the party platform. Therefore he does not āgrow a pairā he betrays his voters. On a different note he is on aggregate more popular than his first term and his policies when polled individually are even more popular (who knew firing leeches in the civil service would be popular š ).
From what I understand, a large factor behind Japan’s decision to progress with GCAP was to reduce reliance on America and American industry. Seems to me Trump’s frenetic and schizophrenic foreign policy would turn them further away from, not towards, the US
Correct in every way š
There canāt be any country in the world now not starting to wonder How reliable an ally the USA might now be in times of need; and not just for the next 4 years as at the rate heās going lord knows what kind of place Trump will turn it into by that time or if it sill ever recover.
NATO, S Korea, Japan,Taiwan and Australia will all be wondering to different degrees.
āOh, you need help? Well sign away 1/2tn $ worth of your resources and weāll seeā¦.ā
Absolutely Levi though they wonāt publicly reveal that. The issue before was the US refusal to transfer IP for their project which they needed to specifically develop the technology to independently produce vital defence platforms they have come to see as vital. Even the F-22 plan which proved unviable at best when finances were probed, but had it progressed the US would have retained sole access to certain vital equipment which would have given them power to ground most of the fleet instantly. With the insanity of Trump/Musk laying waste to any trust or consistency not a chance Japan would willingly put itself in that quagmire. Yes they will buy more US equipment to keep Trump sweet as far as possible but not where it truly counts for its own vital projects.
Why would you imagine that? š
Good question, not an easy one to answer or explain but so far, we have seen some pretty horrendous stuff being spouted by this latest bunch of Ego’s, who knows just what they will come up with next…..
Oh and please can you spell your name correctly, It pushes my buttons when I see WEENER.
We are supposed to be getting an announcement on NGAD anytime, it seems they have come to some sort of agreement. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
The trouble with the current administration is that it is being deliberately unpredictable.
Far better for Japan to stick with with non US allies and accelerate the programmes that we already have.
It won’t stop Japan from buying stuff they really need from the US off the shelf but I think any joint development arrangements might be unwise for any countries for a little while.
They got their fingers burnt last time, when the USA refused to let them have technical data.
I might see Japan as more likely to join a semi-detached extended NATO replace, whilst Trump takes the post-democratic USA to hell in a hand cart.
GDI from command and conquer is born š
Nobody want a technological lockout controlled by a highly unstable Tangerine with toddler negotiating skills.
I aceelt this is a novel idea and a bit of a reach but maybe Starmer has to bribe the Tangerine with some more long red ties and logically if Big Macs?
Elon should be invited to urgently explore Mars – where he will do less damage, hopefully, to the human race.
I know itās half term, but make sure you are on top of the AS level coursework if you want to go out this weekend.
Maybe he should explore Uranus too….. !!!!!
Did you see his performance at CPAC? The guy is unhinged and definitely on a varied cocktail shall we say. Howard Hughes syndrome is his future I suspect though if American democracy does survive this shitshow, he will be in prison, after all itās why plus the risk of his companies collapsing that he had this sudden spurt to the far right and got into politics. Greenspan launched an action against him 6 months back describing him as operating a Ponzi scheme far in excess of Enron. Heās always been a risk taker but looking at him I think he is getting very scared now on all fronts all his wealth is tied up in stock which is why he had to borrow Russian money to buy Twitter and being one of the most hated men in the World he now employs a security team that puts Putinās to shame. Think it explains those cocktails and truly erratic behaviour.
Particularly welcome is the number of apprenticeships, especially if D.E.I. has or will be ditched.
This is the UK. Not the US.
Of course. Engineering is so much better when only an arbitrary and narrow-minded section of a society is involved.
The Uk does not and never has has DEI as the U.S. has it ā¦itās very very different..the whole US DEI has a huge agenda around positive discrimination as a way to rebalance some of the massive social injustices seen..the Uk equality act as all about tackling discrimination..infact some of the actions undertake in the US under DEI would be considered unlawful and discriminatory in the UK..( because UK equally laws are about the characteristic not specific groupsā¦so you cannot discriminate on race in the UK..but under US DEI you could positively discriminate under race.
Trump will ask for guarantees they will support him if China invades Taiwan or he will welch on all treaties with South Korea, Japan and everyone else in the Pacific. He will probably get round to Taiwan soon and ask for 50% of their memory chips or they can be left to China’s upcoming invasion. Same as AUKUS that won’t survive Trump unless Australia sells the out back to him. He really is showing what Yanks are all about in reality, the Dollar and nothing more.
A country looking after its own interests! Who would have thought!
No itās not in the U.S. interest..there is a very big difference between an immediate payoff and what is in a nations long term interests, an isolated US in which china become the dominant power, controlling all those western pacific states with a rebuild Russia as its core ally and a backdrop of the European nations and India as carful neutrals is pretty awful for the US.
America is about to find out what itās like having no friends, Britain tried it in the 1870ās. didnāt work out well for us, it lead to the rise of Germany and the first and second world wars and the loss of the biggest empire in history.
China is about to eat your lunch pal,
It wasn’t that we didn’t want any friends in the late 19C, it was just that it wasn’t at all clear who we should be friends with. The problem with any alliance is that you can get dragged into fighting someone else’s enemies and not your own. Germany and the US were catching up to Britain industrially (and Germany surpassed us around the turn of the century) but we had no real beef or flashpoints with either. Our imperial strategic threats were Russia and France, and we allied with them so we wouldn’t have to fight them, and risk losing chunks of the empire. Everyone, but especially the Germans, were afraid of Russia because they thought it was industrialising much faster than it actually was. The Russians knew they were getting relatively weaker and that the clock was ticking for them to make a play for the Slavic parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which everybody thought was much less resilient than actually turned out. We got drawn into defending Russia’s attempt to predate on Galicia and the Balkans, and the rest is history! All because everyone misjudged the strength of the others relative to themselves.
But yes, fronting up to another peer power without having allies of your own is just suicidal.
Indeed the First World War..a war the Uk should really never have fought..a war that then facilitated the rise of communism and fascism..lead to to Russian civil war, all other conflicts in the 1920s and 1930s as well as the Second World War and the Cold Warā¦the very sad truth was the world was heading to peace and prosperity..right up until WW1 turned the world to shite and we have never really recovered fully.
Canāt imagine all those empires and absolute monarchs surviving in a world with TV.
š Actually none of the monarchies were absolute by this point, and after Russia was humiliated in their 1905 war with Japan even the ‘Tsar of all the Russias’ was nothing more than a puppet.
But we do appear to be cultivating some absolute bloody monarchs today…
Matt itās interesting almost for the first time we are openly hearing prominent American ex military, andiplomats and commentators stating just how reliant the US is on its allies, especially in the hostile World presently developing. To be honest it should be obvious even to Americans that if the Russians arenāt preoccupied on their Western borders that it leaves them open to playing havoc on the US Alaskan border. Putin has cancelled the sale agreement claiming it not to be valid and the Americans arrogantly donāt see the Russians even contemplating it I suspect but Russians see it as an eternal historical blemish. But Trumpās play at empire building meaning enemies can be friends with the stroke of a pen at least in his mind, and friends irrelevant in that process, because he sees everything as a land deal is so naive. The Russians and Chinese are in a completely different game, they can all agree with the US on land deals true which no doubt has drawn him in, but that translates between them very differently āthere can only be oneā as the old Highlander meme went, itās how you get there thatās in the mind of China and Russia. Russia has done its own deal with the devil ie China due to weakness and short term strength to be gained but itās merely buying time without big steps. If Trump plays this game as he is planning from what we see from a serious admittance of weakness as he views the future no doubt, China and Russia will eat him alive in this power play even if itās well after heās gone his actions will lead to the other two being powerful enough in ten years to take if they wish Alaska in a combined operation and the US would find it extremely difficult to get it back without nuclear threats (which would be self destruction in reality) the logistics are all by air and sea and China could make that incredibly difficult even as Russia sent troops piled in. Probably wonāt happen Iām just speculating on one of many possible plays thanks to Trumps nativity but so much has changed in the last month that in 5 or 10 years the World could totally turn on its head and I donāt think Trumps Triumvirate plan will like the original Roman version, hold for long, improve on the dangers or make the US remotely safer, they wonāt break the Russia/China alliance unless the US becomes a Dictatorship so its policies canāt be reversed in Russian eyes. So all talk of America First is fundamentally flawed if this truly is his naive plan to split Russia and China. We are all now mere pawns in this game.
The Donald seems to be stocking up on Chips and Minerals, surely he has some plan we donāt yet understand
Either that or heās a fucking idiot š¤
Me thinks the latter
Like you even need to ask!
What plan Jim? Even reliable and sane US commentators and those who previously worked for him claim he has no thought out plan itās all done on the hoof as he admires himself in the mirror as a strategic genius. Those around him have little to no experience or in some cases hold on sanity in the case of Kennedy. Rubio has completely reversed his once sane stance, maybe is hoping to stay there until a chance to reverse matters comes along like many Congressmen and women but he may simply have sold out knowing itās Trumps way or the highway. Who knows. The one who was a sane voice was Kellogg in Ukraine but he has been totally sidelined his power removed and I suspect is not yet resigning I. Nope he may at least ameliorate the worst aspects of any deal.but seriously I expect his resignation in the not to far distant future or otherwise disappear without trace on a good pension bribe like so many others have had to do in the Justice Dept amongst others. This is effectively a Coup on the quiet, even talk of Generals being replaced one presumes for when it becomes a hot one as is very likely to happen as Trumps support in general rapidly declines. A Rubicon moment approaches I think.
The President is the head of the executive branch and the chief diplomat so he canāt ācoupā the government. What would you suggest in the alternative a coup de tat against the elected government? Unlikely to the point of fantasy. The consequences are far more Final here than under European law.
The new photos look good. Very FB-22. Yes, the Japanese government must be wondering about their security with Trumpās unpredictability. Iām beginning to wonder if Trump is genuinely interested in a shift to a Pacific focusā¦ of if that will be just another smokescreen / sacrifice to cut back the military to reduce the US deficit.
In reality if trump keeps going and completely alienates Europe and gives Russia the space to rebuild..he will face either a pacific war against China and likely Russia as its ally that without Europe the U.S. has a fair chance of losing and suffering economic collapse even if it wins or giving up on the western pacific and accepting china will become the world number one power..and all that means for future U.S. prosperity.
Good, that’s how I see it. Trump doesn’t care one jot about anything other than his own EGO . He’ll be dead soon (old age) yet his Ego will live on to haunt the world for a long time.
Him dumping Ukraine and Europe is probably the greatest mistake of any world leader of all time. Europe is an awakened sleeping Giant now, all we need is the right leaders.
Personally I’d cancel CSG25 and concentrate on closer to home, working with our European friends and building defence relations with Canada, Australia New Zealand and Scandinavia.
And I’d be more interested in keeping hold of Chagos, (kick the yanks out) Beefing up the FI’s and getting back to what made Britain such a Global force for good.
I honestly donāt think itās good..a sino US war is not going to be good even if we are neutralsā¦our economy will tank and we will be a lot poorerā¦ itās just that china and the US will suffer even moreā¦But china is willing and able to suffer to get what it wants, itās knows itās going to suffer but it will do it anyway because it does not care as long as it gets domination in the western pacific and reunification.
I donāt want a world shattered by a Sino US war..but in my view the only way it was being prevented was with the US and Europe in lock step.. because china was just not sure it had a chance again Europe and the US and democracies in the western Pacific all together..china really had to be deterred to never startā¦but now the US has essentially hung Europe out to dry we have no choice but to cut our lossesā¦be neutral..build up what wealth and security we can by trading with anyone then weather the storm that will be the US and china destroying themselves and the nations of the western pacific.
I agree but after last week there is now zero chance anyone other than the UK would support the US in any way in a war against China in the pacific. NATO treaty very explicitly does not cover the pacific so they are not officially obliged.
Thatās basically the only thing JD Vance and the guy from Fox News achieved last week.
You wouldnāt even get EU economic sanctions now. There more likely to back China and see the Euro replace the dollar as the reserve currency.
Even UK support of the US in the pacific would be difficult to sell to parliament and the country under a Trump presidency. Even Japan has started dialogue with china.
Cancelling CSG 25 is probably not the best way to work with Australia and New Zealand. If anything we should just send it to there.
That’s not a bad idea at all. Use it to promote the Five Powers as an alternative security framework, maybe even push defence sales, without going all ‘Commonwealth’ frothy at the mouth. Australia and NZ can’t be too comfortable about ANZUS, the way NATO has been monstered this last week.
Freddie – you have contradicted yourself – on the one hand you are saying that we should concentrate on matters closer to home,then you say we should work with friends like Australia and New Zealand which aren’t close to home – which one is it ?.
Just to show how mad things are getting at CPAC today after Bannon gave his own version of a āRoman saluteā today the French far right leader refused to give a speech and walked out of the Conference. The only thing that holds these extremists together is a u tied hate of liberal and democratic thinkers which is why Trumpās Triumvirate wont hold even if heād Iād get it off the ground. MAGA wonāt hold together even if they remove liberal opposition after all you have Bannon who hates Musk as a traitor but many various shades of fascism and near fascism are operating under that cover. If there isnāt civil war they will unite to fight there will be civil war amongst them. Fact is though polls yesterday came out there is not a majority for any policy MAGA under Trump have carried our 80% plus donāt agree with him snuggling up to Putin, two thirds donāt want Musk doing what he is doing and another 80% disagree with pardoning the Jan 6 rioters. Fact is people may have voted for Trump falling for the āgreatnessā meme but far, far fewer share his vision of how to make it happen. A good majority donāt even agree with his actions against positive discrimination in the workplace. He is totally out of step with the electorate and to the point that a majority are already saying they want a Democratic majority in the House at next years elections. You can see why he is working fast to dismantle the tools that hold him to the Constitution and why he is ignoring the Courts wherever he can.
Where did you get your polls San Francisco? The fact so many people believe pollsters never ceases to amaze me. Polls are another way of saying āI made it the **** up.ā
News flash: Texans, Floridians, and West Virginians donāt care about Ukraine and Europe. They likely never will and if they did it would be to Europes detriment as they first and foremost would burn the world if it meant they could stay home.š”