ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Turn the new season of investments into aerospace, defense and security into an industrial development lever for the country. With this objective Confindustria has launched today, in the presence of the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, Connext Filiere Aerospace, Defense and Security the new project dedicated to the construction and reinforcement of the Italian strategic industrial chains starting from a sector that in the coming years will be among the main engines of the growth of the European productive fabric. Among the speakers of the launch event also Giacinto Ottaviani, National Director of Armaments; Lorenzo Mariani, CEO and General Manager Leonardo; Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO and General Manager Fincantieri; Riccardo Procacci, CEO Avio Aero.
“Today’s debate is a debate on industrial policy,” said Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini. “The NATO target of defence spending at 3.5% of GDP by 2035 is not just a financial milestone: it must be one of the pillars of Italian and European industrial policy. This decision, in fact, imposes a national strategy capable of transforming this choice into an opportunity to build a long-term industrial plan for the country in which investments are translated into innovation, skills, qualified employment and competitiveness. The thing to avoid is that these investments end abroad. For our business system it is a priority to generate growth in Italy, focusing on research and development at a national level, in the awareness that investments in the aerospace and defence sectors always generate important dual use relapses, with strategic applications also in the civil sphere. Europe and Italy must understand that only by supporting with adequate resources their strategic chains will be able not to lose the great challenge that launch us the United States and China. Germany, France and Spain are strengthening their industrial bases. Spain, according to SIPRI data, between 2024 and 2025 has increased by 50% the costs in the sector and in the last 9 years they have passed from 1.1% of GDP in 2016 to 2.1% in 2025. We cannot stay behind.”.
“The space has always been a natural dimension of Italy and today represents one of the greatest potential for growth of the Italian and European economy. It is one of the areas in which the new global economic, technological and geopolitical balances are being defined: the competition is no longer only between nations, but between continents and large industrial systems”, said the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy and Authority delegated to the spatial and aerospace policies of the Government, sen. Adolfo Urso. “The Italian force – he added – lies in his supply chain, which combines large national champions, highly specialized SMEs, innovative startups and industrial districts spread in sixteen regions of the country. This is why we have put in place €7.8 billion by 2028 to strengthen the national spatial ecosystem and support its growth. The Artemis programme, with Luca Parmitano, a pilot of the Artemis III mission and the lunar housing module developed in Turin by the Italian industry, is a concrete demonstration of the role our country can play in the most advanced programs at international level”. “This is the challenge we face: turning our industrial and technological skills into greater competitiveness, qualified employment and European leadership in the strategic sectors of the future,” Urso concluded.
The achievement of the NATO objective of 3.5% of the GDP for defence by 2035 could result, for Italy, in a cumulative increase of GDP equal to +3% (+51 billion) thanks to a multiplication effect estimated around twice the value of investments, this provided that we allocate the increase of spending to the supply chains of our productive fabric. If, instead, we decided to turn strategic investments by importing from abroad the cumulated growth would not exceed 0.9% of GDP. Moreover, there is a strong increase in productivity, with an added value of the industry that increases more than GDP (+6.5%) and tow employment (+2.1%) and tax revenue, as well as generating important technological relapses on the entire production system.
Italy starts from an industrial base already consolidated. According to the mapping realized by CTNA – The National Technology Cluster Aerospace – and Confindustria, the national aerospace sector is worth more than 21,4 billion euros of turnover, employs 54,300 employees and invests about 5% of revenues in research and development. The supply chain is composed for more than 80% by small and medium-sized enterprises highly specialized and widespread throughout the country.
The project looks at both the space economy and the sectors of defense, cybersecurity, civil aviation and shipbuilding, sectors with high technological intensity and a growing integration between civil and military applications. In the space economy, for example, productivity exceeds 65% the national average and the new sector strategic document provides resources for €7.8 billion by 2028. The Italian market of cybersecurity is worth more than 2.2 billion euros and grows at a rate greater than 12% annually.
One of the central elements of the project is the involvement of SMEs. For Confindustria, the strengthening of the supply chain goes from the ability to accompany companies in dimensional growth paths, aggregation, access to credit and participation in large industrial and technological programs.
“Without strong SMEs there is no strong supply chain,” said Giorgio Marsiaj, Vice President of Confindustria for Aerospace. “In an international scenario characterized by the strengthening of national industrial policies and the increasing competition between production systems, Confindustria aims to play an increasingly operational role in fostering industrial connections, investments and dimensional development of enterprises. The challenge is not to create a chain from scratch, but to valorize and strengthen an existing industrial heritage, so that the growth of the sector is growing for the entire country system. We move in this direction with a chain logic, to ensure that national champions are able to activate and involve the fabric of small and medium Italian companies, enhancing the entire national industrial ecosystem.”.
In fact, ConnextFiliere, the project’s operational tool is the proprietary digital platform developed by Confindustria to promote scouting, profiling and industrial matching among enterprises. The goal is to make visible skills, productive capacity and specializations present in the Italian industrial system, creating new opportunities for collaboration along the chains of value.
Aerospace, Defense and Security is the first concrete application of the platform. After the launch conference on 24 June, the project will continue with a series of territorial appointments in the second half of 2026 and in the course of 2027, with the aim of progressively extending the model to other strategic sectors.
-Photo inn press office Confindustria-
(ITALPRESS).
