Dear Director,
reading in the press and on social media, that is the most used news source in Italy today, about alleged behind-the-scenes stories on Roberto Cingolani’s exit, not renewed at the natural expiration of his mandate, I don’t know whether I’m more surprised by the conspiracy theories, the poor familiarity with the defense industry, the short memory, the cross-party nature or the unanimity.
Let’s start with the Michelangelo Dome, the missile shield that according to the media buzz would have worried the US so much as to impose his replacement on Meloni. According to this school of thought (a big word, I know, but forgive me), one might almost be surprised they didn’t put a bomb on his plane like Mattei (he wasn’t there, I know, but understand me). The problems with this reading are at least three.
First, Trump’s Golden Dome runs on different tracks and resources – to be clear, between 185 and 3,500 billion dollars over twenty years, with an initial allocation of 26 billion in this fiscal year. You, being a man of numbers, will have already noticed that this alone equals Leonardo’s turnover. Now, it’s fine that Goliath was killed by David with a sling, but even the most religious don’t take the biblical story as factual.
Second, the idea that the Michelangelo Dome is the only alternative to the Golden Dome. In reality, as analyst Andrea Gilli writes on social media, the European Sky Shield Initiative is already underway, with 24 European countries participating (gulp!), from Albania to Hungary, including Germany and the United Kingdom (double gulp!). In practice, France (obviously) and Italy are excluded. As Gilli says, “In other words, if the United States had an interest in exerting pressure, the issue would rather concern initiatives with real political and industrial traction, not projects that are still struggling to consolidate.”
The third point concerns the product, always Cingolani’s weak spot. An anti-missile defense system needs many elements, all very advanced, from discovery satellites to exoatmospheric interceptors (space stuff!), through long-range discovery radars and other little things. Leonardo, which does not make them, basically proposes a software architecture capable of federating the “pieces” provided by those who really have them. Beyond the technological challenge, which as every art historian well knows would lead to speaking more of Brunelleschi than Michelangelo, the problem is that the “Uber model,” as the excellent Gilli calls it, does not work in defense: no one wants to give the management system power to someone who doesn’t even put in a taxi but only the booking system. That is, the supercomputer which is the investment that has made the CEO’s heart beat the most in recent years (although not the only one, it seems).
And since we are on the product, it is worth reminding the forgetful that at Cingolani’s appointment it was already clear that this was not his strong point. So much so that to secure the company he was paired as co-general manager with Lorenzo Mariani who today, inevitably, is called to succeed him. Since no henhouse can have more than one rooster, Mariani was sent to Mbda Italy, from where he returns today, pushed by reality. I hope he manages to catch trains that have already passed, from drones (in which we are now tributary to the Turks: a great success!) to rockets (with the inexplicable stubbornness not to want to buy AvioSpazio).
From the product to the numbers. Reading about the great economic results of the last three years, I don’t know why Alberto Sordi from “As Long as There’s War There’s Hope” comes to mind. It’s sad to say, but the increase in contracts and revenues is not due to any managerial skill but to the growth in demand triggered by Putin, with his invasions, and Trump, with his threats to leave NATO. If anything, it is worth highlighting the slowness with which the sector is responding, as Minister Crosetto reminded industrialists in the unusual Zoom meeting convened at short notice a few Saturdays ago. Where were the current applauders in the face of that warning?
To close, allow me a question inspired by the so cross-party and unanimous pro-Cingolani reaction. How likely is it that when we move from news to history someone will realize that the best decision of his mandate was to appoint a journalist from Sky as head of communications? Not for the reasons whispered by the vipers that abound in the corridors of Piazza Monte Grappa, but precisely because such broad consensus is not remembered for any other company leader, starting with the late Pier Francesco Guarguaglini.
