In the final days of November 2025, Leonardo lifted the curtain on one of its most ambitious projects to date: the Michelangelo Dome. Far from being a new missile or sensor, the Dome is presented as a broad and flexible security architecture designed to bring together the many, often fragmented, defence capabilities that European and NATO nations already operate.
At its core, Michelangelo Dome is a network. Leonardo describes it as a multi-domain ecosystem linking land, naval, air and space sensors with cyber-defence platforms, data-fusion centres, artificial intelligence and a wide range of available effectors. Instead of building a single, new weapon system, the Dome aims to coordinate those that already exist, anticipating threats and orchestrating responses across different services and even different countries.
The choice of the name is deliberate. Leonardo wanted something that recalled Italy’s engineering and artistic heritage, the idea of a protective dome built on strong foundations but capable of covering a wide space. The reference also suggests an attempt to unify—not just technically but symbolically—a defence environment that in Europe remains deeply fragmented. Different nations field different systems, speak different technical languages, and adopt different standards. The Dome proposes a single architecture able to connect all these pieces, regardless of their age or origin.
From what Leonardo has disclosed so far, the project relies heavily on advanced data-fusion and predictive algorithms. Artificial intelligence is expected to play a key role: the system should be able to digest enormous amounts of information from radars, satellites, underwater sensors, cyber platforms, drones, and aircraft. By merging these inputs, the Dome could identify patterns that would normally remain hidden and anticipate hostile moves. This applies both to conventional and less conventional threats: drone swarms, hypersonic missiles, naval incursions, long-range fires, and cyber operations that accompany kinetic attacks.
Despite these promises, it is important to understand where the project stands. Even Leonardo acknowledges that Michelangelo Dome is an architecture, not a deployed system. It is a framework meant to grow over time, with different layers added as technology, partners, and funding become available. This means that much of the real challenge lies ahead: integrating national assets, solving the inevitable interoperability issues, and convincing governments to share data and standards in a domain where sovereignty has always been jealously guarded.
Some defence analysts have welcomed the concept, noting that Europe urgently needs a coherent way to defend itself against modern threats. The continent continues to rely on a patchwork of national systems, many of which cannot communicate with each other. Others, however, warn that the political dimension may be harder than the technical one. Countries may be reluctant to give up partial control of their air- and missile-defence networks, and integration projects of this scale often progress more slowly than anticipated.
Still, the proposal arrives at a time when the demand for a more unified European defence architecture is growing. Smaller states could benefit from a system that enhances their situational awareness and defensive reach without requiring massive investments in new platforms. Meanwhile, NATO could gain a more coherent picture of the air, sea, land, space and cyber environment across its southern, eastern and northern flanks.
For now, Michelangelo Dome remains a bold, forward-looking concept. But its strategic intent is clear: to move from a defence model based on isolated platforms to one built around shared information, coordinated reactions, and joint protection. Whether it succeeds will depend as much on political will as on engineering progress, but Leonardo’s initiative has already sparked a wider conversation about how Europe must rethink its defensive posture in the coming years.
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