Italy’s defense industry is gaining new strategic weight inside NATO, with major contracts confirming the country’s role as a trusted technology partner for the Alliance. The latest signal is a €200 million agreement awarded to Accenture, with Leonardo as a key industrial partner, to build NATO’s new Protected Business Network.
The 7-year program will create a secure digital backbone for classified operations, replacing older systems with a more agile cloud-based infrastructure.
For Italy, the contract is more than a business success. Leonardo’s participation places Italian know-how at the center of NATO’s digital transformation, especially in cybersecurity, secure communications, cloud architecture, and mission-critical command systems. These are exactly the sectors that will define defense competitiveness in the coming decade.
A second important NATO success also involves Leonardo, this time in partnership with Thales. The consortium will provide next-generation deployable communication and information systems for NATO Special Forces. The program includes 6 deployable headquarters, designed to support allied special operations with secure, resilient, and rapidly usable systems in the field.
Together, the two awards show how Italian industry is moving beyond traditional defense platforms and into the most advanced areas of modern security – digital networks, protected data, operational resilience, and integrated communications. They also strengthen Italy’s position at a moment when NATO countries are accelerating investments in innovation and military modernization.
The results are especially significant because they combine European cooperation with strong Italian industrial value. Leonardo is not simply participating – it is helping design the technological infrastructure that NATO will rely on for classified operations and special forces missions. In a defense market increasingly driven by speed, security, and interoperability, Italy is proving that it can deliver at the highest level.
