March saw Leonardo exhibit at Security and Policing 2023 in Farnborough. We participated as one of the biggest suppliers of defence and security equipment to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), and as a company which works closely with the UK Home Office and NATO, and is certified in the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Security Consultancy framework. Ahead of the event, we caught up with Jon Gray, Director Security and Resilience at ADS Group, to discuss the value of data in security.
At the same time, on the other side of the planet, Leonardo was taking part in DSEI Japan, a major defence sector event in Tokyo. The exhibition marked the first occasion that the nations of the trilateral Global Combat Air Programme’s (GCAP) announced in December 2022 had come together to promote the programme. At the event, the national industry champions (of Japan, the UK and Italy) for advanced defence electronics work stream announced the signing of a collaboration agreement on the ISANKE & ICS domain (Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects & Integrated Communications Systems), with Leonardo UK representing the UK. The domain will be responsible for the advanced electronics on-board the GCAP platform, which will provide the aircrew with information advantage and advanced self-protection capabilities.
Back home, we invited UK-based Small Medium Enterprises, start-ups and academia to participate in a new ‘Combat Air AI Challenge’ to harness disruptive technologies for GCAP. This was a joint endeavour with MOD and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and was closely related to our work within GCAP to develop and deploy ISANKE & ICS.
Later in the month, we were delighted to welcome a NASA delegation to our Southampton site, as they visited to express appreciation for the production of more than 50 detectors for the Administration’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, which is due to launch in January 2024.
Scottish Apprenticeship Week returned in March. Co-ordinated by Skills Development Scotland, the 2023 theme was 'Unlocking Potential', and highlighted how both apprentices and employers can flourish through apprenticeships. We put the spotlight on some of those undertaking apprenticeship schemes at our Edinburgh site, including software engineering apprentices Jake and Arina.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we were pleased to partner with the RAF and host Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall, who spoke to our business about resilience, role-modelling and the importance of team culture.
On the eve of the Islamic month of Ramadan, which began at the end of March, we spoke with Luton Industrial Engineer, Bachir, and Yeovil Industrial Placement Student, Rahma, to learn more about how their involvement in Leonardo’s Ethnicity Inclusion Network Group had helped educate colleagues about the significance of the month to Muslims.