The Move: At Atreju, Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani offered new details on two flagship programs: the Michelangelo Dome for integrated air and missile defence, and the Bromo project for next-generation European satellites developed with Airbus and Thales.
- Both initiatives are designed to reduce industrial fragmentation and build coherent continental capabilities. Yet Cingolani’s comments also pointed to a broader strategic horizon.
- “We keep fighting over who builds the best satellite, but we don’t know how to launch it,” he warned, underscoring Europe’s dependence on non-European launch services.
Why It Matters: Europe currently relies on two ageing systems—Ariane 6 and Vega-C—whose launch cadence is negligible compared to SpaceX. Lacking reusable technologies, European launchers remain costlier, slower, and strategically limiting. As a result, the bulk of European satellites are launched by SpaceX or, increasingly, Blue Origin.
- For a continent seeking strategic autonomy in defence and space, this dependency is a structural vulnerability. Any European consortium that integrates satellite design without addressing launch capacity risks reinforcing, rather than reducing, this strategic imbalance.
Strategic Convergence. Cingolani’s tenure has been marked by cross-border alignments: Rheinmetall on land systems, BAE Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for GCAP, and Baykar in unmanned platforms. The guiding principle is consolidation rather than competition.
- The sale of shares in Leonardo DRS released capital for targeted acquisitions of specialised European firms, deepening the continental footprint.
- In this context, Bromo is presented as “the first building block of something bigger”—a signal that the European space sector may be moving toward a more integrated, multi-domain model.
The Bigger Picture: The absence of a European launcher remains the largest gap in a strategy otherwise geared toward autonomy. Michelangelo aims to unify air-defence networks, while Bromo seeks to create a continental satellite champion.
- But without indigenous launch capabilities, Europe’s space posture remains structurally constrained—both operationally and politically. Cingolani’s call for Europe to field “one team” in the global space competition echoes growing recognition that industrial consolidation must extend to launch services.
Political Fault Lines. Europe’s long-standing rivalries—national industrial champions, diverging budgets, and uneven political will—pose obstacles to any launcher initiative.
- The investment required rivals that of the United States, where government backing has enabled rapid private-sector innovation. Europe’s slow procurement cycles and fragmented governance further complicate efforts to match SpaceX’s pace and affordability.
What It Signals: If Bromo succeeds as a model of cooperation, it could pave the way for a more ambitious initiative: a European, potentially reusable launcher. High risk and long timelines make this a daunting prospect, but the strategic logic is increasingly unavoidable.
- Leonardo’s trajectory suggests that Europe’s next major industrial convergence could emerge precisely where it is most exposed—and where the geopolitical stakes are highest.
