Leonardo has announced robust UK hiring figures and strong overall financial performance for 2024, according to a press release.
The company’s 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 projects—including participation in the Eurofighter Typhoon and Tempest/Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP)—rotorcraft 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 £2.5 billion to the UK’s GDP.
Highlighting the broader success, Leonardo’s Board of Directors revealed its preliminary 2024 financials, which show increases across orders, revenues, and EBITA, alongside higher free operating cash flow.
“The 2024 preliminary results demonstrates the economic, financial, and industrial strength of Leonardo,” said Roberto Cingolani, the Group’s CEO and General Manager, as quoted in the press release. He noted “the strong performance of the Defense and Security segment, coupled with acceleration of the savings plan” 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 intensities—achieved partly through higher renewable energy usage. Leonardo’s investment in R&D, exceeding €2.4 billion, supports advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence, data fusion, and uncrewed rotorcraft technology.
These initiatives underpin Leonardo UK’s ability to contribute to international programmes like the Eurofighter Typhoon and GCAP, as well as to strengthen its cyber security solutions.
Leonardo’s order backlog has surpassed €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.
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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% “efficiency” savings next year alone and Elon hates the F35. NGAD is dead for both services until at least 2029.
Is this not 8% every year for several years iirc?
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 pacific…do you really want to be the western most bastion of that..or do you put your head down and play the neutral card… Because the present road the US is going down is making a SINO US war very likely indeed ( china was… Read more »
Don’t 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 “giant freekin Laser” 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
Not only Japan and S. Korea. Trump for example offered F-35 to India.
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 that’s what Trump offered and Putin replied to the effect about time this is what I have been telling for years’ . Similar assessments have come from other US sources, mostly as warnings. Where does Japan lay in this ‘plan’ 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.… Read more »
A Republican that opposes Trump at this juncture opposes the party platform. Therefore he does not “grow a pair” 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 😅).
My analysis of Trump is that his head exists in different time periods. In USA foreign policy he wants to make like his 1890s heroes Presidents McKinley (for whom he renamed a mountain away from it’s native American name) and Teddy Roosevelt, so he can foment fake wars and invade anywhere he wants. Also, that is the age of the robber barons like Rockefeller, and Trump has the new monopolists standing behind him – Musk, Bezos etc – who want no regulation, and undue influence on government. For family, he is in the 1950s-1970s when he was growing up a… Read more »
“(This is my opinion but also fits the published records.)”
Maybe you can explain JD Vance wife complexion, i think it is “in published records” or Jewish husband of Trump daughter, or the friendship between him and his business partner Don King.
Your published records might be limited to The Guardian…
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 🙂
There can’t 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 he’s 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.
“Oh, you need help? Well sign away 1/2tn $ worth of your resources and we’ll see….”
Absolutely Levi though they won’t 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… Read more »
Why would you imagine that? 😕
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 😀
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 it’s 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 it’s 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. He’s always been a risk taker but looking at him I think he… Read more »
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 …it’s 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 groups…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 it’s 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 it’s like having no friends, Britain tried it in the 1870’s. didn’t 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… Read more »
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 War…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.
Can’t imagine all those empires and absolute monarchs surviving in a world with TV.
😆 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 it’s 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 aren’t 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 don’t see the Russians even contemplating it I suspect but Russians see it as an… Read more »
The Donald seems to be stocking up on Chips and Minerals, surely he has some plan we don’t yet understand
Either that or he’s a fucking idiot 🤔
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 it’s 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 it’s Trumps way or the… Read more »
The President is the head of the executive branch and the chief diplomat so he can’t “coup” 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.
If the Supreme Court or Congress (eventually) tries to check him in accordance with their Constitutional roles who would actually enforce their findings or direction? Wouldn’t it be something like the US Marshalls which Trump and his minions already control? If so, the other parts of the US system are essentially helpless. An armed insurrection or military coup are perhaps now the only barriers to full implementation of the Project 2025 prospectus – a Christian ethno-fascist state. They’re too right-wing even for the European Far-Right to stomach! What an amazing situation the USA is now in. The Founding Fathers simply… Read more »
The new photos look good. Very FB-22. Yes, the Japanese government must be wondering about their security with Trump’s unpredictability. I’m beginning to wonder if Trump is genuinely interested in a shift to a Pacific focus… 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… Read more »
I honestly don’t think it’s good..a sino US war is not going to be good even if we are neutrals…our economy will tank and we will be a lot poorer… it’s just that china and the US will suffer even more…But china is willing and able to suffer to get what it wants, it’s knows it’s 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 don’t want a world shattered by a Sino US war..but in my view the only way it… Read more »
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. That’s basically the only thing JD Vance and the guy from Fox News achieved last week. You wouldn’t 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… Read more »
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.
Agree – CSG to Aus and NZ is the way forward. Show that we will defend our allies (actual ones) and maintain an interest in the Indo-Pacific, without getting involved in dick waving on behalf of Americans who are no longer allies on account of “no longer sharing our values”.
They will not do that
plus Jim ‘Can’t imagine all those empires and absolute monarchs surviving in a world with TV.’
Yeah given by the time TV would be invented in the world where the colonial powers had declined will not be the same as they before it was invented
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 ?.
No contradiction at all, I clearly said we should concentrate on our European friends … AND work closer with Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Scandinavia.
What did you miss in that ?
We have spent decades cosying up to the US, Trump has all but trashed that, now it’s time to do what we should have been doing all those years.
Just to show how mad things are getting at CPAC today after Bannon gave his own version of a ‘Roman salute’ 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 Trump’s Triumvirate wont hold even if he’d I’d get it off the ground. MAGA won’t 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… Read more »
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 “I made it the **** up.”
News flash: Texans, Floridians, and West Virginians don’t 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.🏡
There’s probably an overlap in requirement between Japan and RAF in that they will both want and aircraft with range. The UK for operations over the North Sea and the JASDF for over the Yellow Sea and from air bases well away from Chinese ground launched missiles.
It’ll probably end up being a larger airframe than the Franco-German equivalent. They also need to bend a design towards the French requirement for it to operate off their new carrier which will constrain it’s size.
In the latest pic of the Tempest I see its wings have grown a lot larger and are now integrated with the fuselage much like the Chinese prototype bomber. That makes sense for a fuel and weapons capacity increase. I believe the more like a mosquito or canberra F/B it becomes the better. Cheers.