LBA Systems – the planned Leonardo-Baykar Technologies joint venture – will build five different uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs), including Kizilelma fighters, at three locations in Italy, Leonardo chief executive Roberto Cingolani has disclosed.
Presenting the Italian firm’s third-quarter results on 5 November, Cingolani outlined the industrial plan for the new business – officially launched at June’s Paris air show – which still requires regulatory clearance to proceed.
Under the joint venture, the Baykar UAVs will be produced in plants belonging to both companies and integrated with sensor and weapons payloads from Leonardo.
Most strikingly, this will see Leonardo produce its partner’s Kizilelma uncrewed fighter at its plant in Grottaglie in southern Italy – a factory that currently builds composite fuselage barrels for the Boeing 787 widebody.
“It’s going to be our universal adjunct fighter that can be coupled to any machine as long as you can develop the electronics for the controls and this is of course what we do,” he says.
Meanwhile, another Leonardo facility in Ronchi dei Legionari in northern Italy will build Baykar TB3s, which Cingolani describes as a “cash-cow in this category of machines”, alongside the revival of the Italian firm’s Mirach platform.
Boasting a 200kg (440lb) maximum take-off weight with a 50kg payload, the Mirach is “more like a missile than a standard drone”, he says.
Lastly, the Villanova d’Albenga plant of Piaggio Aerospace – owned by Baykar since June – will build TB2 and Akinci UAVs.
These production sites will be supported by engineering and technology centres in Rome and Turin.
“We are making all the necessary investments and upgrade of the production lines. We are working on the integration and as soon as the regulatory issues are fixed – and we are working daily with the authorities, including the ministry of defence – I believe that already next year the first product will be delivered to the market.”
