The Italian group Leonardo has obtained, as part of the 2025 edition of the European Defense Fund, more than 84 million euros in financing by combining its direct share and that of its subsidiaries, after having seen 15 of its 18 proposals retained by the European Commission. A result which illustrates the dynamics of industrial concentration at work in continental defense.
A high success rate for the 2025 European Defense Fund
Leonardo, the Italian defense industrial conglomerate listed in Milan, announced the selection of 15 of its 18 proposals submitted to the European Defense Fund for the 2025 financial year, i.e. a success rate above 83%. Among the applications selected are 11 capability development projects and 4 research projects, covering a particularly broad technological spectrum. The funding directly allocated to the group amounts to more than 64 million euros, including 51 million dedicated to capacity development and 13 million oriented towards fundamental and applied research. By including the share falling to its subsidiaries, the total consolidated budget reaches approximately 84 million euros.
These figures position Leonardo among the most significant beneficiaries of this European financing cycle. The European Defense Fund, a community budgetary instrument launched for the period 2021-2027 with a total allocation of 7.9 billion euros, aims to stimulate industrial and technological cooperation between member states in the defense sector. The results of the 2025 edition confirm the capacity of large integrated groups, with a multi-country presence and specialized subsidiaries, to capture a disproportionate share of available credits.
Two strategic projects managed directly by the group
Beyond the financial volume, it is the nature of the projects selected which attracts attention. Leonardo directly coordinates two emblematic initiatives of the 2025 cycle. The first, called ASIMOV, concerns the development of operations and services in orbit for European defense, a segment in strong growth at a time when the militarization of the space domain is accelerating on a global scale. The second project, ANEMOS, is dedicated to new radio communication solutions and interoperability between allied forces, a central issue for the operational coherence of the European armies in a context of reinforced collective commitments.
These two projects are part of Leonardo’s industrial strategy, centered on so-called “multi-domain” technologies, that is to say capable of connecting and synchronizing operations carried out simultaneously in land, air, naval, cyber and space spaces. This orientation reflects a doctrinal evolution shared by the main NATO armies, which seek to gain in agility in the face of potential adversaries who themselves master these access denial and jamming capabilities.
A technology portfolio covering the entire capability spectrum
All 15 selected projects cover a technological range representative of current European defense priorities. Collaborative air combat, which involves coordination between piloted aircraft and autonomous drones, is among the areas selected, as are new generation land systems and naval capabilities. Cybersecurity and interoperable training complete this panorama, to which are added transversal technological bricks such as fourth generation radars with four-dimensional detection, infrared sensors and advanced electronic components.
This thematic diversity testifies to the industrial depth of the group, which has entities specialized in each of these areas and can thus constitute credible consortia in the eyes of European evaluators. The ability to bring together industrial and academic partners from several member states constitutes a decisive criterion in the selection process for the European Defense Fund, which explicitly favors cross-border projects.
The European Defense Fund and the question of European industrial sovereignty
Leonardo’s results under the 2025 edition of the European Defense Fund raise a structural question for European economic and political decision-makers: to what extent does this community instrument contribute to rebalancing the defense industrial base in Europe, or on the contrary to strengthening the positions of the already dominant players? Leonardo, alongside Airbus Defense and Space, Thales, Rheinmetall and Leonardo-DRS, belongs to the restricted circle of groups with the size and engineering capabilities necessary to respond effectively to European calls for projects.
For French companies, this observation invites us to question the relative competitiveness of national players in capturing this financing. Thales and Safran, in particular, are regularly present in the EDF consortiums, but the readability of their global positioning remains less immediate than that displayed by Leonardo through this consolidated communication. The rise in defense budgets in Europe, driven by the geopolitical context resulting from the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and by the commitments made within NATO, should mechanically increase the volume of calls for projects in the Fund’s next financial years, offering European manufacturers new financing and cooperation opportunities.
On the financial markets, the announcement did not generate any notable movement, the Leonardo title moving to equilibrium during the Milan session following the publication. Investors seem to have anticipated these results, or consider them to be part of the continuation of a trajectory of capturing European public financing already well established for the group.
