Farnborough delivered!

?It was fantastic to be back at Farnborough after 4 years – you could feel excitement around the show and even the extreme heat couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm.

?It is an especially busy time for our Leonardo UK business and at the show and one of the major things we were delighted to announce was that we are to establish a new production line for the AW149 as part of our commitment to the UK New Medium Helicopter requirement. Within the Tempest programme, we were able to announced that we have agreed the concept for a radar tech demonstrator with Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric which aims to provide enhanced radar functions as well as advanced new capabilities that can disrupt and deny adversary surveillance systems. It was also announced that UK MOD Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Group (FCG) awarded Leonardo a contract to deliver the Rotary Wing Uncrewed Air System (RWUAS) Technology Demonstration Programme (TDP), "RWUAS CCD Phase 3 TDP”.

?Our partnerships continue with the UK MOD. We launched Team Pellonia which, along with Chemring and Thales UK, will see us delivering next-generation air survivability solutions; we signed an agreement to work with the Royal Navy, British Army and Boeing UK to explore a Rotary Wing Enterprise (RWE) to transform support for UK military helicopters; and it was announced that together with BAE Systems Air, we will be developing the state-of-the-art European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk 2 radar for the Royal Air Force Typhoon fleet - helping sustain 1.300 engineering jobs across the UK.

?During the show we also saw the launch of the UK Space Alliance which sees Leonardo and Thales bring together leading space technology companies Telespazio UK (of which I am also Chair) and Thales Alenia Space to invest in and focus on growth in the UK, in response to the UK’s National Space Strategy and Defence Space Strategy. On Tuesday we launched our Levelling Up Impact Report that we put together with the Purpose Coalition to identify steps our UK business is making to help improve social mobility across the UK. On this last event we were represented by apprentices Elin and Thomas who eloquently articulated how the opportunities presented by our company changed their lives when they were at a critical crossroad in their career development.

?But it is not just Elin and Thomas I would like to thank. This week would not have been possible without so many people across the entire business going above and beyond to make this event the success it was. This is not limited to those who represented us at the stand but everyone, up and down the country who has helped deliver successes for us to announce, developed capability demonstrators for us to display, or worked tirelessly to create such an impressive presence at Farnborough and helped raise awareness of how we continue to invest in the UK, its people and its prosperity.

?Thank you all for your hard work and here’s to our continued success.