Present in Brazil for over 40 years, the Italian company Leonardo has been investing to expand its presence in the country and promote a portfolio that ranges from solutions for smart cities to state-of-the-art military fighter jets.
The most recent example is the opening of a helicopter maintenance center in Itapevi, in Greater São Paulo, the result of a contribution of around R$60 million and whose objective is to provide operational and logistical support to the group's customers.
“It is a very important work because it is a testimony of how Leonardo believes a lot in Brazil”, says Francesco Moliterni, president of the Italian multinational in the country, in an interview with ANSA.
At the same time, the company is working to strengthen its helicopter maintenance center in Rio de Janeiro, which supports the Brazilian Navy, and its office in Brasília, responsible for coordinating activities in Latin America.
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“The pandemic has not hindered our projects, we are making great progress”, adds Moliterni, who has traveled throughout Brazil to get to know its industrial base up close and promote Leonardo’s portfolio.
The name of the company, in fact, is no coincidence: formerly Finmeccanica, the company was renamed in January 2017 to honor the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, who, more than a virtuoso painter, was a polymath whose interests spanned the most diverse fields. of knowledge.
Currently, the Italian Leonardo has five divisions (helicopters, airplanes, aerial structures, electronics and cybersecurity), with a wide range of products and solutions for the defense, aerospace and security sectors.
The main one is helicopters, responsible for around 30% of revenue in 2020 and with more than 15 thousand units delivered since 1950. Of these, more than 500 are currently in operation in Latin America, 190 of which are in Brazil, of which 120 in São Paulo.
Travel around Brazil
However, despite the power in the helicopter sector, Moliterni says that his objective is to develop Leonardo's entire portfolio in Brazil, which is seen by the Italian group as an industrial base for all of Latin America.
The executive cites as an example of success the AMX attack fighter, developed in the 1980s together with Embraer. “It’s a source of great pride and proof that Italians know how to work very well with Brazilians,” he says.
Moliterni says that he has traveled a lot around Brazil to see its industrial park, as well as universities and research centers – Leonardo invests 15% of its annual revenue in research and development.
In just the last few months, the president has already visited São José dos Campos, Porto Alegre, Bahia, Recife, among others. “Brazil is gigantic”, he jokes. According to the executive, he was “very impressed” with the high level of capacity seen in Brazilian industry and the quality of the research centers.
“We are making a lot of progress towards having several partners, because we want to develop products here in Brazil. Leonardo is available to form partnerships with Brazilian companies in various sectors, because we are not just defense. Leonardo is security, it’s space, it’s health, it’s the environment”, he highlights.
Products and solutions
In its presentations in Brazil, Leonardo has promoted products such as the C-27J, a tactical aircraft that can be used in firefighting and other civil protection missions. The aircraft has been operating in Latin America for a long time and is part of the Peruvian Air Force, which used it to transport patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, the company recently held a workshop for firefighters from the Federal District to present the concept of an operational center for emergency prevention. This solution uses integrated command, control and communication systems to ensure coordination between planes, helicopters and satellites, as well as the various actors involved in actions of this type.
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Another bet by Leonardo is the concept of smart cities. Last June, the company signed a cooperation memorandum with two other Italian giants – TIM and Enel X – to take this idea to Brazilian municipalities.
A pilot project is already underway in Maricá (RJ) and aims to transform the city into a laboratory for cutting-edge technologies and solutions for areas such as urban mobility, connectivity, digital transformation, financial services, energy, security and health.
“We are presenting the smart city concept to several city halls and governments”, says Moliterni, who foresees new developments for next year. Maricá will also soon have the largest teleport in Latin America, the construction of which has already been started by Telespazio, a subsidiary of Leonardo. (Handle)
