E - Finmeccanica

Finmeccanica magazine n.17 - 9/2010 INTERNATIONAL EDITION 

FINMECCANICA AT FARNBOROUGH 

FRATTINI: STRENGTHENING 

THE UK-ITALY PARTNERSHIP 

LIFE ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 

THE ASTRONAUTS TELL THEIR STORY 

FORZA NEC: THE FUTURE OF DEFENCE IS NETCENTRIC 

A CONTRIBUTION BY LIEUTENANT GENERAL VALOTTO 

AMERICAN NEWS: AN OVERVIEW 

OF GROUP ACTIVITIES IN THE US 

17 INTERNATIONAL 

EDITION

C O N T E N T S 

9/2010 4/2009 FINMECCANICA FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 

3 Editorial 

H I G H L I G H T S 

4 Competing by working together 

FARNBOROUGH 2010 

8 Finmeccanica at Farnborough: a display of pride 

16 UK: a new commitment to growth 

20 US defense: future expenditure 

24 Our journey from space to Earth 

28 Men of telescience 

F O C U S 

FORZA NEC 

30 The power of transformation 

32 Security is digital 

36 Sustainability is a team game 

38 Environmental responsibility 

42 The Mediterranean: an area rich in opportunity 

46 Kazakhstan: a strong partnership 

48 Volandia: history takes flight 

H I S T O R Y 

50 A motorcycling legend 

C O M P A N I E S 

54 The Dreamliner makes its European debut 

56 A ‘line’ of development 

60 Refueling in flight: ready for take-off 

62 Destination: efficiency 

64 Towards the radio of the future 

66 Guardia di Finanza ten years with Atos 

68 A satellite mosaic map of Italy 

72 Iridium NEXT: next stop, the future 

74 Asian synergies 

76 The future as a strategy 

78 Saint Petersburg: innovation on rails 

80 Light metro: certified quality 

82 A signal of excellence 

84 In Qatar among the key players 

P E O P L E 

86 Initial results: the desire to take part 

90 “Dear Chairman...” 

92 New professionals in the making 

E V E N T S 

94 Valuing experience 

98 Finmeccanica football: a world tournament 

100 Pompeii: dance in a place of timeless beauty 

C H A R I T Y 

102 The face of hope 

AMERICANNews 04

9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE 

The 2010 Farnborough Air Show once again confirmed the 

global significance of the Finmeccanica Group. Its visibility, 

its messages, and above all the products on display at the 

British show attracted interest from all the delegations attending, 

signalling a new period of buoyancy in the aerospace and defence 

markets. 

Quite apart from the static displays, Finmeccanica’s stall was 

dominated by the Integrated Capabilities Area (ICA), which represents 

a step beyond the control rooms used previously and was 

able to show all our visitors the integration capabilities of our 

technologies and how these can be easily adapted to meet all our 

clients’ requirements. 

This was a source of great satisfaction to the hundreds of men 

and women from Finmeccanica who had been working together 

for months to present a complete overview of our capabilities and 

potential. 

In this issue, you will find more news of what Finmeccanica is 

achieving around the world, with new contracts, new technological 

approaches, and the fundamental attitude that sets us apart – 

the desire to improve and innovate. 

The photo on the cover of this issue is emblematic of space as a 

frontier of excellence in research, and in the foreground a team of 

astronauts who are also end users of our systems, together with 

the team of technicians and scientists to whom Finmeccanica 

provides technology and expertise, ‘telescientists’ working on 

Earth with their gaze fixed on the stars. 

This issue comes with a major new feature: a supplement intended 

to help you explore our business sectors in greater detail and 

get to know them better. In this issue, we kick things off with 

aeronautics. Enjoy your reading! 

The Editorial Committee 

3



COMPETING 

BY WORKING 

TOGETHER 

THERE IS WELL-ESTABLISHED AND SUSTAINABLE COLLABORATION BETWEEN 

ITALY AND THE UK IN THE AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE FIELDS AND, ACCORD- 

ING TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER FRANCO FRATTINI, THIS ENABLES BOTH 

COUNTRIES TO MAKE NOTEWORTHY ADVANCES IN STATE-OF-THE-ART 

TECHNOLOGY, WITH SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS ALSO FOR SECURITY 

That Finmeccanica plays a 

leading role in this Anglo- 

Italian defence partnership 

is the clearest message on industrial 

policy from the Farnborough 

International Airshow to have 

reached Rome. The person who 

raised it was the Italian Minister 

for Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, 

who is transforming his Ministry’s 

home at the Palazzo della 

Farnesina into a springboard for 

economic development in order 

to relaunch the ‘Italian system’ 

into the world, in more than just 

the political and cultural spheres. 

“We are very much in agreement 

with the UK in all areas of international 

policy and are collaborating 

closely with them on the 

ground, from Afghanistan to 

Iraq, as also on more burning issues, 

such as Iran, Somalia and 

Left: Italian Minister Franco Frattini 

at Farnborough Airshow 2010 

Yemen,” said Mr Frattini on his return 

from a bilateral meeting 

with members of the new government 

in London, to which he 

had been accompanied by his defence 

counterpart, Ignazio La 

Russa, and which had been held 

at the same time as the Air Show. 

The key issue at this bilateral 

meeting was to analyse the potential 

for collaboration between 

Italy and the UK in the defence 

field, which, given the close ties 

between them, might well include 

advanced technology and 

aerospace. All the participants 

thought there was sufficient potential 

to justify embarking on 

the project. Mr Frattini, well 

aware for some time that the 

sector was one in which Italy excelled, 

acted accordingly. More recently, 

the Foreign Ministry, 

through its General Directorate 

for Multilateral Economic and Financial 

Cooperation (Direzione 

Generale per la Cooperazione Economica 

e Finanziaria Multilaterale), 

has joined with AIAD (the 

Italian aerospace, defence and 

security industry federation) in 

initiating a joint information 

project in order, through diplomatic 

and government channels, 

to encourage more effective support 

for the sector’s internationalisation 

process, enabling companies 

within it to be given early 

information about the deadlines 

for the government’s international 

projects in order to be able 

to assess opportunities for meeting 

and raising issues of mutual 

interest. However, the Minister is 

particularly keen on London. As 

Mr Frattini put it, “We are sure 

4 

5



“We are sure that cooperation 

between Rome and London can bring 

about significant advances for both 

countries in cutting-edge technology, 

which will be – whether directly or 

indirectly – applicable to security too, 

starting with the security of 

infrastructure such as ports and 

airports and extending it to include 

coastal areas, the air and the sea.” 

Franco Frattini 

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 

that cooperation between Rome 

and London can bring about significant 

advances for both countries 

in cutting-edge technology, 

which will be – whether directly 

or indirectly – applicable to security 

too, starting with the security 

of infrastructure such as ports 

and airports and extending it to 

include coastal areas, the air and 

the sea”. In this sphere, Finmeccanica 

will inevitably be assigned a 

key role, and not merely an industrial 

one, but also, dare it be said, 

on the diplomatic front. Finmeccanica 

is indeed ‘at home’ at 

every level of the United Kingdom, 

which its chairman and 

CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini 

regards as just as much a ‘domestic 

market’ as Italy and the 

USA, following Agusta’s acquisition 

of the historic British helicopter 

manufacturer Westland – 

and so will be able to build 

bridges without difficulty. Finmeccanica 

has six operating 

companies in the UK with more 

than 9,800 employees (13% of 

the Group’s workforce), bringing 

in 11% of its EUR 18.2 billion in revenue 

and with orders on the 

books amounting to some EUR 2 

billion. Its largest companies in 

the country are AgustaWestland 

and SELEX Galileo, and it is still 

adding to them. AgustaWestland’s 

latest model, the AW169, 

which the company presented at 

Farnborough, packs sophisticated 

technology into an attractive 

design and has already been ordered 

by the British police. One 

major feature of this type of helicopter, 

which the company will 

be building over the next few 

years, is that it will play an important 

role in both the civil and 

government sectors, for the 

AW169 can be used not only for 

passenger transport but also by 

the police and on civil protection 

duties. The UK/Italy defence 

partnership, one of the cornerstones 

of the Foreign Ministry’s 

economic diplomacy strategy (as 

Mr Frattini has already pointed 

out) was sealed at Farnborough 

by the signing of a memorandum 

of understanding on the 

promotion of bilateral trade by 

AIAD and its British counterpart 

ADS. What the two corporate organizations 

are effectively seeking 

to do by means of this memorandum 

is to manage globalisation, 

offering each other reciprocal 

assistance on foreign markets 

and forming an alliance wherever 

possible in facing the challenges 

presented by cuts in the 

budgets of developed countries 

and by the need to establish a 

presence on the markets of new 

economic powers, and in so doing, 

ensure that they are not left 

behind in military-political 

terms. Aerospace, defence and 

security account for 20% of 

British manufacturing industry. 

The sector has a long tradition to 

look back on, but still today relies 

on a network of laboratories, universities 

and research centres in 

order to be a global front runner. 

In the debate sparked in recent 

years by the gravity of the international 

financial crisis, which 

has caused even the position of 

the City of London as the beating 

heart of the dominant industry 

to be called into question, what 

many commentators were 

earnestly hoping for was the 

strengthening of the defence 

and aerospace sectors, whose 

competitiveness requires that a 

great deal of energy be expended 

on research, and which could also 

have knock-on effects on other 

sectors. It is true to say that cutting-edge 

initiatives in defence 

apply to applications common to 

all, for example in civil aviation, in 

the same way that Formula One 

benefits all cars on the roads; in 

the space of ten years, things 

that once seemed the stuff of 

fantasy as long as they remained 

within the world of motor sport 

are now starting to be used by 

motorists every day. The result is 

that significant initial investments 

demonstrate their own 

logic. Meanwhile the cuts to the 

defence budgets of European 

countries and their NATO partners 

is convincing even the most 

sceptical of the need to make resources 

available to all, which 

has led to both the relaunch of 

the European common defence 

policy and the mechanisms for 

enabling systems to be acquired 

throughout NATO. For, both in Europe 

and within the Atlantic alliance, 

there exists the risk of 

hegemony, the one being dominated 

by France and Germany, 

and the other by the USA, so that 

the Anglo-Italian partnership is 

not intended to accept anything 

for which there is no evident 

need. “Let it be quite clear,” explained 

Mr Frattini, “that we 

don’t want to work against anyone, 

but simply to benefit someone. 

In terms of research, skills, 

products and services, Italy has a 

lot to offer. And British industry is 

the most like our own, so much 

so that – as Finmeccanica’s success 

demonstrates – working together 

with the UK works very 

well. We hope that cooperation 

at the institutional level will be 

no less successful.” The Italian 

Minister for Foreign Affairs went 

on to say that London had asked 

Rome for permission to allow its 

unmanned aircraft to undergo 

the necessary flight tests in Italy, 

as the rules in force in the UK, not 

least as regards air congestion, 

were more stringent and made 

such testing difficult. “The Anglo- 

Italian nucleus, “ concluded Mr 

Frattini, “may also be relevant to 

projects such as the Eurofighter 

programme, in which Germany 

and Spain are also involved, in 

which the commitment of other 

partners is required and increasingly 

welcome.” 

Top: the new AW169 in use 

by the British police. 

Facing page: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome 

6 7




FINMECCANICA AT 

FARNBOROUGH: 

A DISPLAY 

OF PRIDE 

WITH ITS EMPHASIS ON LIFETIME COMMITMENT, THE GROUP’S PRESENCE AT THE AIR- 

SHOW DEMONSTRATES TO THE WORLD THE STATURE OF A COMPANY THAT HAS BECO- 

ME SYNONYMOUS WITH SECURITY, INNOVATION, RESPONSIBILITY, INTEGRATION AND 

PRODUCT COMPLEMENTARITY ON AN INTERNATIONAL SCALE 

8 9




The list is a long one: Agusta Westland, 

Alenia Aeronautica, Alenia 

Aermacchi, DRS Technologies, 

Elsag Datamat, SELEX Communications, 

SELEX Galileo, SELEX Service 

Management, Seicos, SELEX Sistemi 

Integrati, Telespazio and Thales Alenia 

Space. Twelve companies, each with 

their own special identity, but all united 

by the pride of belonging to the 

Finmeccanica team. This would certainly 

be a fitting summary of the 

Group’s presence at the 47 th Farnborough 

International Airshow, but although 

it goes without saying that 

Finmeccanica’s participation in the 

UK exhibition was wide-ranging 

and varied, the most main message 

to emerge at the UK show was that 

of ‘complementarity’. The common 

thread running through everything 

undoubtedly remains security, a key 

theme for Finmeccanica, as demonstrated 

by the Group’s long-established 

decision to use Towards a Safer 

World as the slogan to summarise its 

activities. Taking this as its starting 

point, the Group’s objective was thus 

not to showcase the technological 

excellence of its solutions, but rather 

their level of interoperability in front 

of a stellar audience. It is not difficult 

to see this as the result of a desire for 

cohesion that starts from the feeling 

of being part of a Group and ends 

with the integration of technical and 

professional capabilities becoming a 

significant value-added. It was no coincidence 

that the layout of the stand 

offered a clear embodiment of this 

principle. The central area of the Finmeccanica 

Village welcomed visitors 

with an exhibition space dedicated to 

the Group’s five areas of business – 

Space, Air Systems, Training & Support, 

Security & Resilience and Joint 

Operations – where Finmeccanica’s 

solutions were presented in a traditional 

manner, i.e. through the products 

themselves, or using applications 

and display panels, or even explanatory 

films: all done in a way that clearly 

demonstrates the principle of ‘intercompany 

complementarity’ that inspires 

the Group’s operations, with 

the solutions grouped according to 

capability rather than company, regardless 

of the different situations in 

which they can be employed. If security 

– in its many different manifestations 

– is the universe that Finmeccanica 

inhabits, the other key theme of 

its industrial operations is Lifetime 

Commitment, the term that encapsulates 

a Copernican revolution in the 

way that the relationship with clients 

is viewed, based on the insight that a 

sale is not the end, but rather the 

start of a commitment: establishing a 

relationship that can go beyond simply 

listening to the client’s needs. In 

other words, the idea is to offer our 

partners active and prompt support – 

in technical assistance, training and 

upgrades – over the product’s entire 

life cycle: an approach that places Finmeccanica 

at the forefront of the industry, 

thereby adding another hallmark 

to its international reputation. 

Moreover, since the Group’s underlying 

philosophy rests on the concept 

of seamless operations, the objective 

was to show the Group’s technology 

working in real-life situations at the 

Farnborough stands. This was the primary 

aim of the Integrated Capabilities 

Area, which offered three demonstrations 

of the Group’s systems capabilities 

in three operational contexts 

and formed the real heart of the 

stand. These three plausible contemporary 

scenarios provided visitors 

with concrete examples of how the 

technologies of the Finmeccanica 

Group offer solutions to real situations 

in the world today: 

• multinational intervention following 

a local insurrection by terrorist 

forces (Multinational Intervention 

F-NEC Solutions); 

AERONAUTICS PROGRAMMES: 

INTERNATIONAL PROSPECTS 

We are working on UAVs to establish 

a programme of collaboration 

with the UK, which is an extremely 

important partner for us, especially 

in light of the broader strategic 

partnership plan launched by the 

two governments. Another area 

where we and the UK enjoy an excellent 

understanding is the Eurofighter 

project, with which we are looking to 

win important markets such as India 

and Japan. We expect to achieve significant 

results on this front over the 

next few months. In India specifically, 

the technical evaluation tests that 

the Indian authorities carried out on 

the Typhoon went very well, which is 

particularly important given that this 

final phase will lead to the compilation 

of the shortlist of candidates. In 

relation to the JSF, clear progress has 

been made with regard to industrial 

participation, and the development 

of the FACO (Final Assembly and 

Check Out) has begun. This offers 

proof that we are working more constructively 

with the US, which is 

opening up to us in terms of industrial 

collaboration and technological focus: 

so much so that after a year’s 

work we can genuinely say that we 

have established a solid basis for excellent 

relations. I believe that this 

new climate will prove advantageous 

not only for Italy but also for our US 

partners. I am firmly convinced that 

this series of initiatives, along with 

the many others that are under 

way, will enable not just Finmeccanica 

but the country as a whole to 

access technologies and expertise 

that it would otherwise have been 

difficult for us to tap without 

spending vast resources. These are 

the benefits that we can achieve 

when international co-operation is 

real, and not just empty words, and 

in future I intend to continue raising 

awareness of this topic in this 

sector, which is of strategic important 

for the country and its security. 

Guido Crosetto 

Undersecretary of State for Defence 

These pages: Finmeccanica’s presence at 

Farnborough Airshow 2010 

10 11




“I believe that if countries such 

as the United States and 

emerging countries like India 

and Brazil are today buying our 

products, our aircraft, this is 

testimony to the heights to 

which we have risen. 

Our immense ability 

to innovate, take risks and 

invest in research is already 

producing real results, including 

on the economic front.” 

Mariastella Gelmini 

Italian Minister of Education, 

University and Research 

• protection of a port (Homeland Security); 

• security at a major sporting event 

(Securing Major Events). 

So far we have focused on the exhibition 

spaces, although the description 

would not be complete without mentioning 

the static display area for the 

exhibition of aircraft, helicopters and 

systems, the daily flight displays and 

the chalet areas. The rest, as befits an 

event of this importance, was a busy 

hive of experts, an international forum 

where seeds can be sown for the 

future and business horizons expanded. 

This point was taken up by Finmeccanica 

Chairman and CEO Pier 

Francesco Guarguaglini in the opening 

press conference, held with the 

Group’s Chief Operating Officer Giorgio 

Zappa, where he explained that 

the response to the crisis would also 

involve looking beyond European 

markets, something that Finmeccanica 

has been doing for some time now 

with excellent results. This interest 

would seem to be reciprocated, judging 

by the 80 foreign delegations 

from more than 30 countries that visited 

the Finmeccanica exhibition areas. 

There was also a high-profile 

presence from Italian institutions, including 

the Minister of Education, 

University and Research, Mariastella 

Gelmini; the Minister of Defence, Ignazio 

La Russa; the Minister for Foreign 

Affairs, Franco Frattini; Secretary- 

General for Defence and National Armaments 

Director, Lieutenant General 

Biagio Abrate; Under-Secretary for 

Defence, Guido Crosetto; General Vincenzo 

Camporini, Chief of the Defence 

General Staff; Lieutenant General 

Giuseppe Valotto, Chief of Staff 

of the Italian Army; Admiral Bruno 

Branciforte, Chief of the Italian Navy; 

and Admiral Ferdinando Lolli, Commandant 

General of the Italian 

Coast Guard. However, let’s now turn 

to the major innovations unveiled 

for the first time at Farnborough: 

Agusta Westland’s AW169 helicopter 

– a new benchmark for twin-engine 

aircraft in the 4.5-ton class – and the 

Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the biggest 

commercial success in civil aviation 

history and the first time that extensive 

use has been made of carbon 

fibre for the structure, 14% of 

which was produced by Alenia Aeronautica. 

These two completely new 

products are evidence of the 

Group’s strategic decision to continue 

investing in technological capabilities, 

which is the only real way to 

achieve medium- to long-term 

growth that is not tied to international 

economic cycles. 

A gala event that goes ‘inside the painting’: 

technology for art’s sake 

Our stated aim – clear and up front – is to 

bring Italian excellence to the world. 

Finmeccanica mainly achieves this through its 

commercial operations, which are now wellestablished 

on the international scene. 

On the occasion of the Farnborough Airshow, 

however, continuing what has now become 

something of an enjoyable tradition, the idea 

of Italian excellence is also brought to life by 

turning the spotlight on masterpieces of 

Italian art and culture, preferably in relation to 

historical experiences of the highest renown. 

The symbolism is clear: excellence recalls 

excellence, innovation recalls tradition, the 

machine age recalls the age of humanism. 

This year was no exception, and the location 

was once again the National Gallery in 

London, whose Sainsbury Wing hosted a gala 

event to present seven wonders from the 

Italian Renaissance or earlier, under the 

inspired title Breaking The Artist’s Code. 

The works were The Annunciation by Duccio 

“The government 

takes great 

satisfaction from 

the ability of our 

industrial sector, 

of which you are the 

main exponents, 

to compete on the 

international stage 

even in challenging 

circumstances, while 

increasingly aiming 

to expand beyond 

Europe.” 

Ignazio La Russa 

Italian Minister of Defence 

di Buoninsegna, the Santo Sepolcro Alterpiece 

by Sassetta, Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius 

by Sandro Botticelli, The Agony in the Garden 

by Andrea Mantegna, A Muse by Cosimo Tura, 

The Dead Christ supported by Two Angels 

by Carlo Crivelli, and Three Saints by Nardo 

di Cione. The presentation of the ‘magnificent 

seven’ was attended by the Minister of 

Education, University and Research, 

Mariastella Gelmini, and the Minister 

of Defence, Ignazio La Russa, who, along with 

Finmeccanica’s other guests, were given 

an insight into the different artistic styles, 

any restoration or changes that the paintings 

had undergone over time, the techniques 

used to study the paintings and the 

discoveries that have been made. So here too 

we are talking about ‘technology in action’ – 

although in this case in the service of culture 

and beauty – which represents the key 

concept shaping Finmeccanica’s participation 

in the Farnborough Airshow. 

MARITIME TRAFFIC 

AND SECURITY: ITALY 

LEADS THE FIELD 

The global maritime community 

is opting with increasing decisiveness 

for more exact and accurate 

maritime traffic control systems, 

in order to enhance navigation 

safety, protect life at sea and 

preserve marine habitats, without 

overlooking the contribution that 

these systems can make to attempts 

to tackle criminal activities, 

as well as to preventing and monitoring 

illegal immigration. Our VT- 

MIS (Vessel Traffic Management 

and Information Service) system, 

conceived and developed in Italy, is 

certainly cutting-edge, having 

been designed on the basis of technical 

specifications provided by the 

Italian coastguard service setting 

out very precise and complex requirements. 

The software is of particular 

importance, and is based 

primarily on a huge number of 

databases, all of which are linked in 

real time to make the system as integrated 

as possible; this level of 

integration enhances the speed at 

which information is available and 

how quickly an object can be identified, 

which naturally means that 

action can be taken sooner and 

that the overall traffic situation in a 

given area can be appraised more 

rapidly. The Mediterranean is an extremely 

sensitive area, and in this 

respect we as a country bear certain 

international responsibilities, 

particularly as a member of the European 

Union, and we are trying to 

involve the countries on the North 

African coast as much as possible. 

The Mediterranean is a sea that is 

in great need of protection, and in 

this context it is true to say that 

the Italian system has met with a 

lot of satisfaction throughout Europe, 

which – if you will permit me 

to say – looks to us with a certain 

envy and scrutiny, to the extent 

that our systems have now been 

adopted as European systems, giving 

us every right to boast that in 

this field we are world leaders. On 

this journey, Finmeccanica has 

been with us every step of the way, 

especially through its subsidiaries 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati and Elsag 

Datamat, working in synergy with 

us to develop a system with technology 

of the very highest quality. I 

am confident that Finmeccanica’s 

willingness to dedicate ever 

greater resources to this system 

will result in the creation of a 

product with excellent export potential, 

because (as I mentioned at 

the very start) global demand for 

maritime traffic control systems is 

growing constantly. 

Ferdinando Lolli 

Commandant General 

of the Italian Coast Guard 

Above: Ignazio La Russa, Italian Minister of Defence. 

Facing page: Mariastella Gelmini, Italian Minister 

of Education, University and Research, and below, 

the Integrated Capabilities Area at the 

Finmeccanica stand 

12 

13

PH RI GI MH O L I GP HI AT NS 

O 



“We are moving towards a 

more integrated defence 

industry and national defence 

companies are working 

together across services and 

technologies. 

Finmeccanica is a great 

example of how this 

all comes together for benefit 

of all in the UK.” 

Liam Fox 

UK Secretary of State for Defence 

THE ITALIAN NAVY: 

LEADERS IN SECURITY 

It is clear in the current geo-strategic 

climate that, over recent years, 

in addition to the risk of actual conflict, 

particular threats have 

emerged from the maritime environment. 

I am referring to illegal 

immigration, piracy, illegal arms 

trading and drug trafficking by organised 

criminal gangs, some of 

which operate on an international 

scale. This has revealed the need for 

all countries to engage in targeted 

surveillance. Providing maritime 

defence for the country is one of 

the key duties of the Italian navy, 

which has therefore worked hard in 

recent years both to develop surveillance 

systems and to reach bilateral 

and multinational co-operation 

agreements. Nationally, we 

have now probably succeeded in 

defining the architecture that 

should provide the country with the 

most integrated and efficient maritime 

surveillance system possible. 

Because there are a number of organisations 

that operate at sea, including 

the Navy, Coastguard Service, 

Harbourmasters Corps, Financial 

Police, Carabinieri and the Police, 

it was necessary to establish 

how to integrate all the capabilities 

of these agencies to provide a general 

picture and a clear understanding 

of what happens at sea. Last 

year, the Prime Minister’s office decided 

that this integration of information 

must take place within a 

system known as the Integrated Interministerial 

Maritime Surveillance 

Device (DIISM), based at the 

Italian Navy Fleet Headquarters in 

Rome. This is where all the information 

on the maritime environment 

held by these organisations will be 

collated, and it is through this system 

that information will be shared 

with all the agencies involved to enable 

them to fulfil their respective 

duties. The Navy uses its own ships, 

aircraft, submarines, helicopters 

and radars in its operations at sea, 

and is already implementing an integrated 

system to manage the 

maritime situation in co-operation 

with the Harbourmasters Corps. Internationally, 

the Navy has promoted 

a number of initiatives over the 

past ten years, particularly in the 

Mediterranean region, and has successfully 

agreed to collaborate and 

share information on commercial 

traffic with all the navies of other 

Mediterranean countries. This cooperation 

is exemplified by the system 

known as the VRMTC (Virtual 

Regional Maritime Traffic Centre), 

involving 29 navies, which is currently 

being extended through the 

emergence of similar systems that 

are being developed in other maritime 

areas, and we are trying to 

develop a system of communication 

between the different regional 

organisations. In October, at the 

Regional Seapower Symposium for 

“We count on a 

global technology 

base for quality so 

that we can draw 

on expertise to 

bring to the 

American market; 

we welcome 

European 

participation in 

defence.” 

Ashton B. Carter 

US Under Secretary 

of Defense for Acquisition, 

Technology & Logistics 

the Navies of the Mediterranean 

and Black Sea Countries to be held 

in Venice, there will be a meeting 

of 40 different national delegations, 

during which the navies involved 

in the VRMTC will sign an 

agreement with the Brazilian 

Navy, the Singaporean Navy and, in 

all likelihood, the Indian Navy. That 

is a brief summary of how the Italian 

Navy is working for international 

security in the Mediterranean, 

and Finmeccanica naturally 

contributes to all this through 

its technologies and projects. 

Bruno Branciforte 

Chief of the Italian Navy 

These pages: the Finmeccanica static display 

area at the air show 

14 15

H I G H L I G H T S 9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE 

UK: A NEW 

COMMITMENT TO 

GROWTH 

Russell Hotten 

BBC Business Reporter 

A NEW ERA FOR THE UK WITH THE 

COALITION GOVERNMENT LED BY 

DAVID CAMERON. PRIME MINISTER’S 

KEY OBJECTIVES INCLUDE REFORM 

OF THE TAX SYSTEM AND REBALANC- 

ING THE ECONOMY IN ORDER TO 

BOOST COMPETITIVENESS AT INTER- 

NATIONAL LEVEL. HOWEVER, THE 

NEED TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT CALLS 

FOR CUTS IN THE MINISTERIAL BUDG- 

ET AND METICULOUS CONTROL OF 

EXPENDITURE, WHICH WILL NOT 

SPARE DEFENCE, THE COUNTRY’S 

LARGEST MANUFACTURING SECTOR 

Britain’s new Conservative-led 

coalition government has announced 

a series of policy reviews 

and tax changes since the 

general election in May. Fuelled by 

all the enthusiasm that comes with 

a change of government, the new 

administration wants to overhaul 

Britain’s financial and industrial 

landscape. 

The ambitions are high: reform the 

tax system to improve international 

competitiveness; revive the manufacturing 

sector after decades of 

decline; ensure Britain’s educational 

and training system focuses 

more on vocational skills like science, 

engineering, and technology. 

Whether the government succeeds 

or not is a different matter. But 

there is real hope that this administration 

will deliver on its promise to 

prioritise manufacturing, technology, 

science, and related sectors. Why 

the optimism? Because the global 

financial meltdown changed the 

rules of economic engagement for 

the UK. 

There is now general agreement 

that Britain became over-reliant on 

financial services, at the expense of 

manufacturing. The financial crisis 

exposed the weakness of being dependent 

on London’s Square Mile of 

bankers, insurers and traders to create 

the country’s wealth. 

So, the government has vowed to 

re-balance the economy. These are 

early days, and there is not much 

detailed policy at the moment. But 

if words are subsequently translated 

into deeds, the future drivers of 

growth are likely to be companies 

operating in areas such as valueadded 

manufacturing, the ‘green’ 

economy, the nuclear industry, and 

creative sectors like Britain’s worldrenowned 

computer games businesses. 

Another reason why the government 

wants to bolster these sectors 

is the need to reduce Britain’s budget 

deficit. Ministerial departments 

have been ordered to slash their 

budgets by up to 40%. The public 

sector faces years of contraction. 

The government’s strategy is that 

by supporting the private sector, it 

will replace the public sector as the 

generator of growth and jobs. 

To set the scene, the government 

began in June with an emergency 

Budget of tax reforms. Corporation 

tax is being reduced to 27% next 

year, and then to 24% over the following 

three years. With the exception 

of Ireland, it will be the most 

competitive rate in Western Europe 

Left: David Cameron, 

Prime Minister of United Kingdom 

16 17



and, the government believes, a 

magnet for inward investment. 

There are extra tax breaks for small 

businesses, entrepreneurs, and for 

companies setting up outside the 

UK’s three most prosperous regions. 

Tax credits for research and 

development, rather than being 

swept away as feared, are likely to 

be re-targeted towards high-tech, 

high-growth companies. 

Business leaders welcomed the tax 

changes, but are awaiting further 

details of Britain’s industrial direction. 

These may come later this 

year, with publication of the Treasury’s 

Comprehensive Spending Review 

(CSR), a major document that 

will set out three-year spending priorities 

for everything from education 

to defence. The Treasury, holder 

of the nation’s purse-strings, is currently 

engaged in negotiations with 

each government department about 

their spending needs. 

However, a good guide to the government’s 

thinking about the future 

of Britain’s manufacturing and 

technology industries is a report by 

the entrepreneur Sir James Dyson. 

His Ingenious Britain report was 

commissioned by the Conservative 

Party, and has won many plaudits, 

not least from Prime Minister David 

Cameron, who called it a “blueprint 

for creating a generation of innovation 

and enterprise”. 

At the heart of the report is a call 

for a cultural change in attitudes to 

engineering and science in order to 

provide industry with a higher 

skilled workforce. The report is music 

to the ears of many business 

leaders, who believe that any revival 

in engineering and technology 

must start with the basics – that is, 

with education. 

Company bosses and employers’ 

groups hope that Sir James’ recommendations 

will help form a fullyfledged 

industrial strategy; not one 

that merely reacts to day-to-day 

events, but a detailed roadmap for 

the next two decades. Mr Cameron, 

through various speeches in past 

months, has demonstrated sympathy 

for such views, as have other political 

heavyweights in the Cabinet, 

such as Vince Cable, Business Secretary, 

and Ken Clarke, a former Chancellor 

of the Exchequer. 

The trouble is, any strategy that involves 

spending money has to be 

done against the backdrop of 

straightened economic times. The 

point is illustrated by a new government 

attitude towards Foreign Direct 

Investment (FDI). Since the early 

1980s, when Britain began attracting 

Japanese carmakers to its 

shores, billions of pounds have 

been spent encouraging FDI. 

But Britain can no longer afford to 

be so generous, says Mr Cable. “Having 

very substantial amounts of 

money which we are splaying out in 

grants and subsidies: we cannot do 

that. There is a budgetary problem 

which we inherited. The second reason 

(against big subsidies) is that it 

is actually very bad policy,” he said. 

According to UK Trade and Investment, 

part of Mr Cable’s department, 

FDI generated 94,000 jobs in 

2009, 20% up on 2008. Although 

the number of inward investment 

projects fell from 1,744 to 1,619, the 

importance of FDI for job creation 

cannot be underestimated. 

So, the government certainly will 

not be closing its doors to FDI. All 

the indications are that the government 

will re-double its efforts. As 

well as the work already done by 

UKTI, Mr Cameron told UK diplomats 

and ambassadors in a speech 

in July that he wants to “inject a 

new commercialism” into the Foreign 

Office. “If you want to keep 

Britain’s great ambassadorial residences, 

then I want you to show me 

that every day you are using them 

relentlessly to open new trade links 

and to generate new business for 

Britain,” Mr Cameron said. 

The message is that Britain – despite 

budget cuts, despite a growing 

protectionism elsewhere in developed 

economies – is still open for 

business. In fact, Britain has no 

choice but to be open if it is to restructure 

its economy. Take the energy 

sector. The multi-billion-pound 

expansion of wind and nuclear 

power generation is dependent on 

investments, skills and technology 

from abroad. Any company involved 

in alternative energy could find the 

UK a thriving market over the next 

decade and beyond. 

Except that there is now a question 

mark over the state subsidies that 

were intended to kick-start the expansion 

of nuclear generation. A review 

of the funding process is underway, 

and could take 6-12 months. 

But most observers believe that 

without an injection first of public 

money, private money will not be 

forthcoming. 

The defence industry is in a similar 

position. Britain’s single largest 

manufacturing sector, employing 

directly or indirectly 300,000 people, 

is bracing itself for cuts in the 

Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) annual 

£36bn-a-year budget, perhaps by 

up to 20%. 

In July the Audit Commission, an official 

body that monitors government 

spending, said that the MoD 

was “living beyond its means”. The 

Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, 

clearly agrees. Manufacturers will 

have to offer “better value for money,” 

Dr Fox said recently. The quid 

pro quo, Dr Fox promises, is a clearer 

vision about what the MoD 

needs from equipment suppliers. 

He intends to update the 2005 Defence 

Industrial Strategy by setting 

out more clearly the ‘sovereign capabilities’ 

that should remain in the 

UK. That extra visibility will certainly 

be welcomed by the industry. 

But these are uncertain times. And 

the UK’s business-friendly government 

may have to take some very 

unfriendly measures once its various 

policy reviews are completed. If 

there is a single message running 

through what the Government has 

said so far, it is this: short-term pain 

for long-term gain. 

Above: Bank of England, London 

18 19



US DEFENSE: 

FUTURE 

EXPENDITURE 

David J. Berteau 

Senior Adviser and Director, Defense Industrial Initiatives Group’ 

Center for Strategic and International Studies 

DESPITE THE BUDGETARY PRESSURES ON THE ACCOUNTS OF 

THE US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, THE NEED TO TACKLE AND 

OVERCOME CURRENT CHALLENGES WILL REQUIRE THE US AD- 

MINISTRATION TO TAKE DECISIONS AIMED AT MAKING CON- 

TRACTS MORE EFFICIENT AND OPTIMISING COMPETITIVENESS 

For the past decade, European defense 

firms such as Finmeccanica 

have seen growth in their revenue. 

The US independent think tank, the 

Center for Strategic and International 

Studies (CSIS), tracks the financial performance 

of European firms in a separate 

European Defense Index. That Index 

shows overall revenue growth of 

nearly 100 per cent since 2001, but it also 

shows that most of that growth has 

not been in Europe. European defense 

spending has declined steadily in the 

past 10 years, as CSIS will report in a 

new study to be released later this summer 

in Washington, DC. Our study 

shows that most of the growth has 

been in Asia, the Middle East, and the 

United States. This makes it important 

to understand what is likely to happen 

as increasing budget pressures impact 

spending by the US Department of Defense 

(DoD) over the next five to ten 

years. 

In late July, President Obama signed the 

Fiscal Year 2010 Supplemental Appropriations 

Act, adding USD 33 billion and 

bringing FY2010 DoD spending to more 

than USD 700 billion. FY2011 projections 

call for a similar number, although the 

final congressional figure may be slightly 

down. Of that total, roughly USD 400 

billion is spent on contracts for systems, 

research, and services. This total has 

doubled in the past ten years and has 

been the source of revenue growth for 

defense contractors, including those 

from Europe. DoD is dependent on the 

private sector for needed equipment, 

technology, services, and personnel sup- 

port, and those needs are not going 

away. But will that growth trend continue? 

Almost certainly, it will not. 

Last January, US Defense Secretary 

Robert Gates announced an Obama Administration 

commitment for one per 

cent annual growth in DoD spending. 

This seems promising, until we realize 

that there are three big challenges for 

future US defense spending and that 

none of these challenges will be solved 

by that one per cent growth in the defense 

budget. 

The first challenge for US defense 

spending is how to move away from the 

dependency on supplemental appropriations. 

Since 2001, Congress has provided 

DoD up to USD 200 billion per year in 

unbudgeted spending through supplemental 

appropriations for Overseas 

Contingency Operations (or OCO). In 

FY2010, total OCO funding will be more 

than USD 160 billion, designed to pay 

for the added costs of operations in Iraq 

and Afghanistan as well as support 

costs back home. A detailed look at 

what the money is spent for will show 

20 21



that billions also cover shortfalls in other 

accounts, from military pay to 

weapons repair. Some of these ‘shortfalls’ 

will disappear as troops come 

home from Iraq and eventually 

Afghanistan, but many will not. Future 

OCO funding is set for USD 50 billion 

per year, a cut of over USD 100 billion 

from today’s figures. However, CSIS estimates 

that an additional USD 20-30 billion 

will need to be absorbed into the 

‘base’ defense budget. No one knows 

how much of that amount is spent on 

contracts or whether those contracts 

will need to be continued, so the impact 

on industry is uncertain, but even with 

one per cent growth, absorbing USD 20 

billion will mean displacing other expenditures. 

The second challenge is how to pay for 

unfunded shortfalls. Even today’s USD 

700 billion does not pay for everything 

the military plans to buy, from the Army’s 

future Ground Combat Vehicle and tactical 

wheeled vehicles to the cost of replacing 

the Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile 

submarines. In addition, the cost of 

‘reset’, replacing or restoring equipment 

used or damaged in Iraq or Afghanistan, 

could add tens of billions to the unfunded 

shortfall. The military services have 

struggled this summer to identify the 

size of these shortfalls and to fit them into 

the upcoming budget for FY2012 and 

beyond. In some cases, they have yet even 

to acknowledge that such shortfalls exist, 

preferring to hope that funding will 

be provided from elsewhere. 

Additional shortfalls will arise from rosy 

projections of the future cost of military 

personnel, including health care, and of 

the annual cost of operations, including 

contracts for services. Historically, DoD 

underfunds such projections by 1.5 per 

cent per year, and the failure to realize 

rosy projections will likely add perhaps 

USD 4 or 5 billion per year to the unfunded 

shortfalls. Overall, these shortfalls 

could require another USD 30-40 

billion in funding. Failure to fund them 

will affect contract spending, though in 

ways that are too hard to predict at this 

time. 

The third and perhaps biggest challenge 

to US defense spending does not come 

from DoD at all. It is the challenge of reducing 

the annual US federal budget 

deficit. Projections from July 2010 call for 

record deficits in FY2011 and FY2012 of 

approximately USD 1.4 trillion per year. 

Economists disagree on whether the US 

economy needs more stimulus spending 

before deficit reductions begin, but domestic 

American politics will dictate 

that deficits will need serious attention, 

perhaps as soon as the FY2013 budget. 

Defense spending is nearly one quarter 

of total US federal budget spending, 

making it difficult to conceive of any serious 

deficit reduction plan in which 

DoD spending does not play a substantial 

role. Proportionally, DoD’s share 

could be as large as USD 100-150 billion 

per year. Today, it would be hard to get 

Congress to approve a defense budget 

with cuts of that size, but the domestic 

political environment could change as 

elected representatives and senators 

equate the threats of deficit spending 

with reduced overall national security. 

The factual landscape has already 

changed in this regard. For the entire period 

following the end of World War II, US 

defense spending has been higher than 

the annual federal budget deficit. That 

changed in FY2009, when for the first 

time, the deficit exceeded defense spending. 

Annual deficit projections remain 

larger than projected defense spending. 

More troubling still is the annual payment 

on the total federal debt, held 

down by historically low interest rates. 

CSIS projects that a mere one per cent 

increase in anticipated interest rates 

will mean that by as soon as FY2015, the 

US government will spend more on annual 

debt payments than on defense. 

This unprecedented budget reality 

makes it even harder for the US to address 

the deficit without including serious 

defense spending cuts. 

Taken together, these three challenges 

significantly increase the pressure on 

the US defense budget. The DoD response 

thus far appears vigorous but 

not large enough. First, Secretary Gates 

has called for increased efficiencies in 

defense spending, aimed at saving USD 

100 billion over the next six years. All of 

those savings would be available to offset 

the shortfalls described above. That 

is, Mr Gates has said the military services, 

once they identify the actions that 

produce efficiencies, may reapply the 

freed-up funds to other needs. USD 100 

billion over six years is roughly 2.5 per 

cent of the defense budget, but this will 

not be sufficient for either the OCO 

funding demands or the unfunded 

shortfalls. Still, this is a step in the right 

direction, and it has the added advantage 

of encouraging the open acknowledgement 

of shortfalls, but it is far too 

small to make much of a difference. 

In addition, DoD has undertaken additional 

actions to promote efficiency in 

contracts, which as noted above constitute 

nearly USD 400 billion in annual 

defense spending. Chief among these 

initiatives will be enhanced competition, 

framed by greater attention to affordability 

of requirements. In announcing 

the contract efficiencies, Dr Ashton 

Carter, the under secretary for acquisition, 

technology, and logistics, emphasized 

that his actions were not aimed at 

budget targets, but these acquisition 

efficiencies may nevertheless yield additional 

benefits and reduce budget 

pressures further. 

The size of the future budget challenge 

facing DoD is substantial, and current 

efforts will not be sufficient. However, 

there is time to work on these challenges, 

and other factors (including economic 

growth rates) may change the 

targets significantly. Regardless of the 

responses ultimately adopted by DoD 

and the US federal government, reliance 

on contractors will remain a prominent 

part of US defense spending, and the 

future of both the government and its 

contractors will be intertwined. 

Right: Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense, 

on a visit to soldiers near Kandahar, Afghanistan 

22 23


9/2010 

FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE 

©NASA 

OUR JOURNEY 

FROM SPACE 

TO EARTH 

INTERVIEW WITH NICHOLAS J.M PATRICK, KATHRYN P. 

(KAY) HIRE AND TERRY W. VIRTS, 3 OF THE 6 CREW MEM- 

BERS WHO THIS PAST 8 FEBRUARY BROUGHT NODE3 

TRANQUILITY AND THE CUPOLA, MODULES SYNONY- 

MOUS WITH THE EXCELLENCE OF MADE IN ITALY, TO THE 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 

From space to Turin, or Rome... 3 

of the 6 American astronauts 

from NASA who this past 8 February 

brought Node3 Tranquility and 

the Cupola to the International 

Space Station came to Italy to meet 

in person the people and technology 

that made it possible for them to 

successfully carry out their mission. 

Listening to them tell the story of 

their daily lives in space is a truly 

unique experience, even more so 

considering that Nicholas J.M 

Patrick, Kathryn P. (Kay) Hire and Terry 

W. Virts became full-fledged protagonists 

in the history of space exploration 

with this mission. 

we were going to try to go to Test-Pilot 

School to see if I could be an astronaut. 

So that was... when we decided 

that, it was about 1997, I think. 

What is the image from space that 

you hold most dearly? 

Nicholas: Definitely the view from 

the Cupola. I was getting out of my 

EVA suit and Terry said “Nick come on 

©NASA 

over and take a look at this fantastic 

view!” I looked outside and couldn’t 

believe my eyes. 

Terry: The Cupola with its 7 portholes 

pointed towards Earth that offered 

us a panoramic view that we had 

never before seen in space. 

How does technology help you deal 

with the ‘daily routine’ up in space? 

T: There are lots of different problems 

that we have to solve in space 

and some of them we solve with 

very basic things that we have here 

on Earth and then other ones require 

higher technology, ‘space age stuff’. 

We moved our Tranquility module 

and our Cupola and several other 

modules with the robotic arm using 

some advanced software that use 

computer graphics to show a virtual 

world where the Space Station is. It 

helps us to make sure that everything 

is clear when we are moving it 

around. And then, on the other hand, 

we did a lot of work inside and outside 

that just required basic mechanic 

skills. We were like auto-mechanics 

in space. 

You trained for a long time. What is 

the reality of dealing with microgravity? 

N: The one thing for which we can’t 

really train very well is micro-gravity. 

And, the reality is that it is much 

more difficult than you would expect. 

You don’t have to use muscles 

to hold yourself, you can just hold on 

very gently with fingertips and occasionally 

let go. The problem is that 

the things you need – and we need a 

lot of things to do our work in space 

– tend to float away unless you put 

them in a pocket (where you forget 

them) or grid them to a wall. A 

screwdriver behind your head, a 

flashlight inside the back of your 

shirt. Things just disappear and then 

reappear all of a sudden. 

What is the most comfortable place 

on the ISS? 

T: Oh, that’s a good question. There 

are a lot of nice places on the station 

and each place has its own flavor. It’s 

not like it’s all the same. Every room 

is different. Undoubtedly the European 

lab in Columbus, built by 

Thales Alenia Space here in Turin, 

was my favorite place to sleep. Node- 

3 was very comfortable also because 

it was new and there wasn’t very 

much stuff in there, it was not 

crowded. At any rate, sleeping in 

space doesn’t have to be the same as 

in your own bed… 

N: The way we sleep in space is we 

use a sleeping bag and we likely tie 

down the sleeping bag to whatever 

surface you want to hold it against. 

You could use the floor, the wall. I 

When did you actually decide that 

this would become your job, to be an 

astronaut? 

Terry: Well, when I was a little kid, is 

when I actually wanted to be an astronaut. 

But it wasn’t until years later 

– when I was an Air Force F-16 pilot 

stationed in Europe in Germany – 

I was trying to decide what I wanted 

to do in the future. And we just came 

to the decision, my wife and I, that 

Right, clockwise, from top: 

George Zamka, Terry Virts, Kathryn Hire, 

Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken 

and Stephen Robinson 

Space Shuttle Endeavour lands in darkness 

on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility 

at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida 

after 14 days in space. 

Top: the American astronaut Nicholas Patrick 

©NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O’Connell 

24 

25


©NASA 


usually slept on the ceiling. Then you 

get into the sleeping bag and after 

that you can just float inside the 

sleeping bag or you can do like some 

people who use straps around their 

chest and around their head to make 

it feel like they are back at home, 

with gravity pulling their head onto 

a pillow and a mattress. 

How important is living as a team? 

Kathryn: It’s very important to work 

as a team in space. We actually train 

together on the ground for many 

years ahead of time. And then once 

we are assigned to a mission, we 

work with the specific team that we 

will see in space and we really do 

function as a team. We come together, 

we also work with the Mission 

Control folks on the ground in Houston 

and they become part of our 

team. They are just a little more remote. 

It becomes like a big family. 

People ask us sometimes “As you are 

going to launch, what does it feel 

like?” And my feeling is it’s probably 

like a professional or an Olympic 

sports team feels when it’s finally 

time to go and take the field and 

compete. 

N: If we had been in the World Cup, 

we probably would have won! 

What are the sensations during reentry? 

K: Well, it takes us 8 and half minutes 

to get into space. It’s a little of a 

bumpy ride on the way up but once 

we are there, and our main engines 

cut off, we’re instantly floating and 

everything is floating. It takes a little 

bit for the body to get used to this 

floating. But then when it’s time to 

come back, as we start to re-enter 

the Earth’s atmosphere to come 

down to landing, it’s very gentle actually, 

very slowly, you just start feeling 

a little heavy. You start feeling 

like someone is just gently pushing 

on your head and till suddenly you 

just can’t imagine how heavy this 

helmet now feels. When we get to 

land and we come off the Space 

Shuttle we just feel very heavy. Your 

legs are heavy. We can move fine, it 

just feels like you are wearing a very 

heavy suit. 

You met with some of the people who 

have been working with you in Thales 

Alenia Space in Turin. Is there anything 

you would like to ask or tell 

them? 

N: Well, it was very important for us 

to be able to come here and say 

thank you to the people of Thales 

Alenia Space for making such a fantastic 

flight hub with Node-3 and 

the Cupola. These modules have 

added so much to the Space Station 

and it’s now just a much better place 

to live thanks to the hard work of 

Italians. I think if I had a question for 

them it would be “How does it feel 

to know that something you have 

worked on with your hands is now 

flying around the planet at 17,500 

miles an hour and is making such a 

difference to the world’s space program?” 

What is your vision of future space 

conquest? 

K: Well, we have a long history of 

space flight. Over 50 years with 

NASA. And we look forward to the 

future. We currently have 2 more 

Space Shuttle missions scheduled 

and they will go to the ISS to bring 

additional parts and spares to make 

sure that the Space station is able to 

continue its operations. By bringing 

Node-3 to the station we were able 

to create an area where we can carry 

out experiments on the ISS and we 

are using that laboratory for its true 

purposes. So, that is going to continue 

for many years to come. And 

stand by for the great discoveries I 

think that we are going to find by 

doing this research in space. And we 

look forward to developing new 

spacecraft to go even further, to explore 

even beyond low-Earth orbit to 

see what we can find out there in 

space and we enjoy doing this with 

our international partners, especially 

in Italy and the great hardware that 

we get and the great support that 

we get from the Italian Space 

Agency and from Thales Alenia 

Space. 

After touch down, did you realize 

that you had become part of history? 

T: I think we did. Before we even 

launched, we knew that this was a 

historic mission, because it was the 

last major living area that we 

brought up to the Space Station, and 

we knew it was an important step. It 

wasn’t the end of anything but it 

was an important milestone – I think 

– in a continuing history of space exploration. 

We astronauts are like the 

tip of the iceberg with a very visible 

part that’s held above the waterline 

by the work of thousands of other 

people, many of them here in Italy. 

So, as we look back at what we have 

added to the history of human space 

flight, we really have to thank all of 

those who have made it possible for 

us to do our roles in space. And many 

are here in Italy at Thales Alenia 

Space. 

Nodo3 and Cupola 

This past 8 February 2010 at the Cape 

Canaveral Space Center, the Space Shuttle 

Endeavor began Mission STS-130. On 

board were Node3 and the Cupola, the 2 

modules built entirely in the Turin plant 

of Thales Alenia Space. Nodo3 and the 

Cupola reached the International Space 

Station after a two-day trip. Once they 

were connected, they became 

indispensable elements for the 

completion and full operational capability 

of the station. Thanks to systems for 

recycling water, producing oxygen and 

environmental control, Node3 Tranquility 

made it possible to increase the number 

of crew members from 3 to 6. For its part, 

the Cupola, 3 metres in diameter with 7 

portholes, has room for 2 astronauts to 

work at the same time. It is an 

exceptional work station with a 360° 

view around the Station. 

©NASA 

Above: mission specialist, Robert Behnken. 

Facing page: in the grasp of the Space Station’s 

Canadarm2, the Tranquility module is 

transferred from its stowage position in Space 

Shuttle Endeavour’s payload bay to the port 

side of the Station’s Unity node 

26 

27



MEN OF 

TELESCIENCE 

RTYURUYRTUYRTU, 

AS MAJOR PLAYERS IN SPACE DEVELOPMENT, TELESPAZIO 

EXPERTS WORK FROM EARTH TO MANAGE THE FLUID SCI- 

ENCE LABORATORY DEVELOPED BY THALES ALENIA SPACE 

ITALIA ON BOARD EUROPE’S COLUMBUS MODULE, AT- 

TACHED TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. WORK 

THAT FOCUSES ON THE NEEDS OF THE SCIENTIFIC COM- 

MUNITY 

Scientific progress is based on 

experiments, which in the early 

twenty-first century have found 

a new and exciting testing ground: 

space, or to be precise, the International 

Space Station. A new frontier 

ripe for exploration by a team of engineers, 

scientists and astronauts, all 

with a common aim: experimentation 

and discovery. The fundamental 

contribution to each mission undertaken 

by the people and technologies 

of Telespazio is now carried out 

from Earth in the form of the new 

methods of telescience. On 7 February 

2008, the European space module 

Columbus was permanently attached 

to the International Space 

Station (ISS), marking the dawn of a 

new era for European scientific experimentation 

under conditions of 

microgravity. The decision to have a 

European module that would allow 

continuous experimentation in space 

dates back to the early 1980s. The 

module’s permanent attachment to 

the International Space Station represents 

the pinnacle of a design and 

implementation programme that involved 

the European Space Agency 

(ESA) and the national European 

agencies, all of which were also involved 

in implementing a complex 

organisational system and intricate 

Earth infrastructure to facilitate the 

preparation of on-board operations. 

The ESA’s operating concept is based 

on a network of centres that manage 

operations and the archiving of data 

from the European scientific payloads 

via the central node of the 

Columbus Control Centre at Oberpfaffenhofen, 

near Munich. Telespazio’s 

facility in Naples is one of the four 

European centres that have complete 

control of one of the Columbus laboratories, 

the Fluid Science Laboratory 

(FSL), developed by Thales Alenia 

Space Italia. All the pre-operational 

and operational phases of the laboratory 

are managed from the Naples 

control room, as well as activities to 

promote the scientific use of the facility. 

The FSL is a complex laboratory 

that required an extremely long commissioning 

and on-orbit check-out 

phase, including troubleshooting activities, 

which were carried out by the 

Telespazio team, with the support of 

Thales Alenia Space Italia in Turin, via 

real-time interaction with the onboard 

systems. As Dario Castagnolo, 

the key contact for troubleshooting 

activities, explains, a salient aspect of 

this delicate phase was “the speed 

and flexibility with which detailed 

technical analysis had to be carried 

out and rapidly turned into effective 

operating procedures”. Long test and 

validation periods were spent in 

Telespazio’s clean room working on 

the laboratory’s engineering model. 

The first scientific experiment carried 

out in the FSL at the end of 2008 was 

Geoflow, designed to study geophysical 

fluid flow under microgravity. The 

Telespazio team co-ordinated the operations 

of the Spanish support team 

and the scientific team from the university 

of Cottbus in Germany, where 

Geoflow was conceived. These experiments 

herald a new way of doing 

science. Stefano Tempesta, who as 

one of the operation leaders plays a 

key role in operational performance, 

explains it like this: “At last we are using 

the concept of telescience, which 

means a virtual presence on board 

the module, in order to get the very 

best scientific results through the experimenter’s 

involvement in real 

time.” Each experiment brings with it 

an increasing sense of collaboration, 

which goes beyond the international 

realm and involves many people 

working together simultaneously in 

real time at locations dotted across 

the planet and in space. MVIS was 

the next technology experiment, carried 

out on behalf of the Canadian 

Space Agency and using a system for 

minimising the effects of vibrations, 

which can have detrimental effects 

on experiments under conditions of 

microgravity. “Once again, the thorough 

preparation and ability to work 

in a team, collaborating in real time 

with the experimenters on the other 

side of the Atlantic and with astronauts 

on board, was the key to success,” 

stressed Antonio Ceriello, who 

managed the project. 

But it is not only the FSL experiments 

that Telespazio has been 

working on in recent years. It has also 

been collaborating directly with 

NASA on other experiments. Marcello 

Lappa and Chiara Piccolo, who coordinated 

the preparation and performance 

of the experiments, highlight 

how “a significant aspect of scientific 

experimentation in space is 

the need to have an in-depth knowledge 

of the phenomena being studied, 

which is essential for co-ordinating 

and interacting with the many 

scientific teams involved during the 

crucial phases of the experiment”. 

From its Naples base, Telespazio has 

also conducted important experiments 

with NASA to evaluate the effects 

of radiation on the central 

nervous system of astronauts. These 

experiments were conceived by Professor 

Narici at the University of Tor 

Vergata and carried out using ALTEA 

experimental apparatus, developed 

in Milan by Thales Alenia Space Italia 

on behalf of the Italian Space 

Agency, under the MoMA programme. 

In recent years, the Italian 

Space Agency has made a significant 

contribution to scientific study on 

the ISS, especially in the life sciences 

and biotech sectors. In this regard, 

its starting point has always been to 

choose experiments that will also 

help to improve the quality of life of 

the general population. Last in 

chronological terms, but of paramount 

international scientific importance, 

was the MDS experiment 

to study la degeneration of bone tissue 

under conditions of microgravity. 

This experiment was designed 

and carried out from the Telespazio 

control room in Naples with realtime 

scientific co-ordination by Professor 

Cancedda of Genoa University 

and technical support from Thales 

Alenia Space Italia. This was “an experiment 

carried out using for the 

first time live mice, which were mon- 

itored for over 100 days in orbit before 

they returned to Earth,” explains 

Renato Vicinanza, who co-ordinated 

the experiment. The expertise and 

commitment of Telespazio employees 

have been key components in 

the success of many other missions 

and experiments conducted on both 

the ISS and all the other available 

space platforms. Some of the hallmarks 

of the work undertaken include 

attention to the needs of the 

scientific community and a focus on 

improving the data and results for 

the benefit of science, applications 

and education. To this end, Telespazio 

is involved in important European 

projects. In the immediate future, 

Telespazio will be at the forefront of 

the success of various Italian and international 

missions and experiments. 

In prospect are Roberto Vittori’s 

future mission for the Italian 

Space Agency, NASA’s Fundamental 

and Applied Studies of Emulsion 

Stability (FASES) in the FSL, the 

FASTER experiment and new experiments 

on the effects of radiation on 

humans in space, all of which see 

the International Space Station as 

the foremost outpost of space exploration. 

Above: the International Space Station (ISS) 

in its current configuration in orbit around 

the Earth. Right: the Telespazio Control Room 

in Naples during the conducting of the 

Geoflow experiment on the ISS 

Above: the Geoflow experiment 

container used in flight. The central glass 

sphere used to simulate the Earth’s 

liquid core is clearly visible 

28 29

F O C U S 


FORzA Nec 

THE POWER 

OF TRANSFORMATION 

Lieutenant General Giuseppe Valotto 

Chief of Staff of the Italian Army 

THE CHANGE DRIVER FOR THE ENTIRE 

LAND FORCE, FORZA NEC IS THE ITAL- 

IAN ARMY’S MOST IMPORTANT PRO- 

GRAMME AND THE ONE THAT WILL 

ATTRACT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF FI- 

NANCIAL INVESTMENT OVER THE 

NEXT 25 YEARS 

It is now a well-established fact that leading 

countries have implemented, as part of their 

strategic military priorities, initiatives geared 

around netcentric principles and practices that 

allow for multinational, multidisciplinary interoperability 

between Armed Forces. Ensuring that 

the military capabilities of the land force fully 

meet the above-mentioned criteria is a top priority, 

given the central role played by the Italian 

Army in all the major operations recently carried 

out in conjunction with Allied, European, UN and 

coalition troops. These operations have also provided 

clear indications on the level of quality necessary 

to operate in conditions of safety and efficiency, 

and in a complex environment of multinational 

integration, increasingly characterised by 

the adoption of digital and netcentric technologies. 

Moreover, we cannot overlook the fact that 

the introduction of information and communications 

technology in the civil sector and its spread 

throughout the world has also brought advanced 

tools within the reach of countries traditionally 

less well equipped in terms of military technology 

and of many non-governmental organisations 

that have now become key players in the international 

political and military arena. In implementing 

Forza NEC, the Army has determinedly embarked 

on the road of expeditionary, netcentric 

and effect-based operations for its units, without, 

however, losing sight of the need to support all 

those who operate on a daily basis in areas of 

conflict with the full might of all its resources. 

This is a complex and multi-faceted transformation. 

The introduction of netcentric technologies 

into the land force is no mean feat given the vast 

size of this force and the need to deploy and organise 

it across a greater area than other operational 

units, with the obvious complications this 

entails for the architecture and for the capabilities 

of the transmission and C2 systems. This is 

the reason behind the need to follow a programme 

based on the gradual digitisation of the 

units, in order to achieve objectives that combine 

operational efficiency, financial sustainability, logistics 

support and flexibility of use. This is a concrete 

strategy that is entirely consistent with the 

strategic guidelines for developing network enabled 

capability (NEC) between forces and countries 

established by the Italian Defence General 

Staff and NATO. In practice, this means equipping 

C2 structures, platforms and personnel with digital 

C4 systems (command, control, communications, 

computers) that allow them to monitor 

and manage developing operations to a level of 

detail never before achieved, and to empower 

them to dynamically configure themselves in 

such a way that they can act as ‘sensors’, decision-makers 

or ‘actuators’ within a netcentric operating 

system. Continuity of the whole process 

will thus become a vital element. If the Army is to 

transform itself while continuing to operate, it 

needs to procure releases of upgraded capabilities 

and gradually deploy them in operations, 

based on an ‘evolutionary spiral’ approach, which 

in the Forza NEC’s timescale will take place in 

three stages. Specifically, the first stage is scheduled 

to be completed by 2018 and the other two 

by 2031, leading to the complete digitisation of 

three ‘medium’ brigades (in order of priority: 

Pinerolo Brigade, Aosta Brigade and Sassari 

Brigade), an interforce amphibious landing force 

(at the Lagunari ‘Serenissima’ and ‘San Marco’ 

regiments of the Italian Navy) and a strong pool 

of tactical and logistical support resources equivalent 

to an additional brigade. The first phase is 

already taking shape and the Pinerolo Brigade, 

which embarked on the process of transformation 

in 2009, has released its first operational 

output: a ‘medium’ infantry unit of the 82 nd ‘Torino’ 

infantry regiment fully equipped with new 

VBM 8x8 Freccia infantry fighting vehicles (the 

Italian Army’s first completely digitised vehicle), 

deployed in the Afghan conflict since June 2010. 

In conclusion, there are many reasons why we 

can be optimistic about the progress of the Forza 

NEC programme: the increasing synergies between 

the fields of technical operations, technical 

administration and industry, the fact that 

many projects due to be rolled out during the 

first stage – including the Soldato Futuro programme, 

the VBM 8x8 Freccia vehicles and SIAC- 

CON 2, to name but a few – are well established, 

and a defence policy aimed at producing complete 

standardisation and consistent capabilities 

between the numerous, complex, network-oriented 

investment programmes. 

30 31

P F OR I C M U O S P I A N O 


FORzA Nec 

SECURITY IS 

DIGITAL 

THE IMPORTANT CONTRACT SIGNED BY SELEX SISTEMI IN- 

TEGRATI AND THE ITALIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY OFFICIALLY 

LAUNCHES THE FORZA NEC PROGRAMME, WHICH ALSO 

INVOLVES MANY OTHER GROUP COMPANIES. THE OBJEC- 

TIVE OF THE PROGRAMME IS TO DIGITISE THE ARMED FOR- 

CES ACCORDING TO NETCENTRIC PRINCIPLES 

Arid desert. Imagine the hardship 

of hostile environments 

and unknown terrain, of an 

impending threat and of darkness 

that obscures everything and everyone, 

making visual and any other 

type of communication difficult. 

That is when information superiority 

becomes paramount. And this is 

where the technological supremacy 

of SELEX Sistemi Integrati comes into 

play. Using technology that facilitates 

the maximum exchange of operational, 

tactical and logistical information 

between transport and 

troops, all individuals, vehicles and 

platforms deployed in a theatre of 

operations are able to communicate 

with each other. This is the most visible 

and immediate result to be 

made available to the Italian Armed 

Forces under the EUR 238 million 

contract signed by Finmeccanica 

and the Land Armaments General 

Directorate of the Italian Defence 

Ministry, which aims to digitise the 

Armed Forces using netcentric principles 

via the Forza NEC (Network 

Enabled Capability) programme. The 

agreement involves several Finmeccanica 

companies such as SELEX 

Communications, SELEX Galileo, Elsag 

Datamat, Oto Melara, AgustaWestland 

and MBDA Italia, along with Elettronica, 

Iveco, Engineering Ingegneria 

Informatica, the Iveco-Oto Melara 

consortium and the Soldato Futuro 

temporary consortium. The contract 

covers the manufacture and integration 

of command posts in shelters 

and vehicles, communication, command 

and control devices for soldiers 

(under the Soldato Futuro programme), 

unmanned vehicles and 

aircraft equipped with sensors, and 

systems offering full interoperability 

between the Italian Armed Forces 

and the forces of other countries. 

The netcentric scenario 

The globalisation of military scenarios 

and operations, new types of 

threat and the huge strides made in 

technology mean that homeland defence 

requirements are becoming 

increasingly complex. As new risks 

emerge and security and defence 

policies evolve, the operational capabilities 

required of the Armed Forces 

and related deployment concepts 

32 33

F O C U S 


FORzA Nec 

continue to change. This process 

must be supported by the development 

of netcentric capabilities and 

architecture. The term implies a 

combination of conceptual, procedural, 

technical, organisational and 

human elements which, when appropriately 

networked together, interact 

with each other to give the 

armed force deploying this system 

a considerable advantage. Netcentric 

architecture is a prerequisite for 

multinational interoperability and 

the identification of new and more 

efficient concepts of operational 

deployment. In this respect, the 

Forza NEC programme meets the 

need for a flexible military tool with 

fully harmonised components that 

can project the appropriate deployment 

of troops, and which allows 

integration with allied forces across 

the full range of national, multinational, 

NATO and EU operations. 

Architecture and achieving the strategic 

objectives 

The main objective of the Forza NEC 

programme is therefore to plan, develop 

and test the C4I architecture 

of a digitised medium force and of a 

landing force that provides a high 

degree of interoperability, and to facilitate 

the creation of networked 

forces that can exchange information 

and locate the exact position of 

friendly forces as well as emerging 

potential threats. The adoption of 

Forza NEC will allow the Italian 

Armed Forces to increase their operational 

capacity by using cuttingedge 

technology that offers particular 

advantages, especially for out-ofarea 

joint and combined operations. 

A key component in the success of 

the Forza NEC programme is the 

availability of an architecture plan for 

the entire system, as it ensures that 

the technical specifications of the individual 

components of the new digitised 

force are such that they enable 

the creation of an integrated force 

that meets the defined operational 

requirements with the appropriate 

level of efficiency. 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati has developed 

a robust methodology for the planning 

and experimental testing of the 

Forza NEC architecture, which ensures 

the proper technical management 

of the phases of development, 

integration and the incremental rollout 

of the new digitised components. 

Command and control systems 

Forza NEC’s command and control 

and associated digitisation services 

represent the backbone of the system 

and are implemented across all levels 

of the chain of command from the 

commander of the brigade to the individual 

soldier. Specifically, digitisation 

services underpin the whole infrastructure 

by ensuring the maximum 

amount of information exchange. 

This enables the brigade to 

have information superiority, which 

helps support the commanders and 

their staff, with the aid of the command 

and control functions, in the 

planning and conduct of operations. 

The design and implementation of 

the command and control systems 

stem from contracts that existed prior 

to Forza NEC, which are currently 

nearing completion, such as SIACCON 

2, digitisation services, SICCONA, 

Soldato Futuro and Blue Force Situational 

Awareness (BFSA). 

A VTMS system for the coasts of Panama 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati has signed a contract 

with Panama’s Ministry Of Public Security to 

supply a coastal control and monitoring 

system, which will be used by the Central 

American country’s National Aeronaval 

Service (SENAN). Under the agreement, the 

company will supply a national control 

centre with 16 consoles, which will receive 

data from 18 Lyra 50 radars situated at 

intervals along the Panamanian coast and 

eight local centres, each of which comprises 

six controller working positions. The supply 

will be completed by a communications 

Integration test bed 

A network of specialist environments 

for the operational validation 

of the military units equipped with 

the new Forza NEC architecture will 

form an integral part of the system. 

This will operate in conjunction with 

infrastructure dedicated to checking 

the integration and gradual roll-out 

of new capabilities. SELEX Sistemi Integrati 

will design and build an integration 

test bed (ITB), an innovative 

laboratory for testing new technologies 

before they are applied. The ITB 

represents a modular testing centre, 

made up of numerous military centres 

that are geographically dispersed, 

networked in a completely 

integrated and interoperable environment. 

This standardised, interconnected 

laboratory provides facilities 

for project validation, the checking 

and integration of systems to be 

digitised, and the testing of future 

versions. The laboratory will also be 

used for training personnel on how 

to operate the new systems and procedures. 

In practice, a synthetic environment 

core (SE Core) will be created 

in the ITB, intended to reproduce 

simulated operational scenarios and 

to control and evaluate activities. 

This will be combined with a series 

of simulators to reproduce digitised 

systems (vehicle platforms, sensors, 

UAV-UGVs) and the C2 systems that 

form part of the Forza NEC architecture. 

This combination of elements 

will provide the Armed Forces with 

the tools to evaluate and check systems 

in a virtual environment. Integration 

activities carried out at the 

ITB will play a crucial role in the programme, 

given that this area is key 

to an efficient transition from the 

current low level of digitisation to 

system which will interconnect the radar 

sites, local centres and national centre, and 

allow the exchange of information between 

naval units and the control centres. The 

system, built by SELEX Sistemi Integrati 

thanks to its wealth of experience in 

creating VTMS systems, is the ideal solution 

both for the protection of the Panamanian 

coasts from access by vessels involved in 

illegal trafficking and for the co-operation 

with other countries’ forces and 

government institutions in search and 

rescue maritime operations. 

the fully digitised configuration envisaged 

for the future. The introduction 

of the new systems and equipment 

into the units under the Forza 

NEC programme will constitute the 

first step towards increasing operational 

military capacity, but the multiplier 

effect of digitisation will only 

be felt when individual capabilities 

are efficiently and, most importantly, 

transparently integrated for each 

end-user of the system. This 

methodology will also be applied in 

the case of updates to the platforms 

that are already in operation or soon 

to be implemented. In summary, the 

gradual transition to a new digitised 

operational framework will allow 

the Armed Forces to continue working 

at full speed, while maintaining 

the necessary levels of operational 

efficiency in the meantime. Upon 

completion of the digitisation 

process, the Italian Armed Forces will 

be in a position to contribute more 

effectively to peacekeeping and 

peace-enforcement operations – 

missions in which they are constantly 

called upon to participate. 

These pages: soldiers working with some of 

the equipment that will be 

implemented thanks to Forza NEC 

34 35

F O C U S 


SUSTAINABILITY 

IS A TEAM GAME 

THE 2009 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT REPRESENTS THE START OF A QUIET ‘REVOLU- 

TION’ THAT WILL MAKE THE REPORT A KEY TOOL IN THE GROUP’S MANAGEMENT 

PROCESS. A WINNING PROPOSAL THAT AIMS TO BRING ABOUT A CHANGE IN 

CULTURE IN WHICH THE ENTIRE GROUP PARTICIPATES AT EVERY LEVEL 

The third edition of the Finmeccanica 

Sustainability 

Report is now here. Is it just 

an update to the second edition? 

Not at all: the 2009 Sustainability 

Report, which was finished at 

the beginning of July, when all 

those who worked on it were given 

a sneak preview of the final 

report, represents the start of a 

quiet revolution, transforming a 

communication tool into a fundamental 

part of the management 

process that is integrated 

into the Group’s strategic plans. 

Finmeccanica’s commitment to 

sustainability is more than just 

skin deep: it is a winning proposal 

for cultural change, because it 

requires the integration of new 

measures for assessing sustainability 

into all company decisions 

at every level, thereby helping to 

add value for the stakeholders. 

When taking decisions, we no 

longer just consider the technical 

feasibility or the cost, but also 

look at the impact our actions 

will have on the interests and expectations 

of the wider society: 

environmental protection, the 

careful use of resources, social 

cohesion, the promotion of culture, 

the quality of our relationships 

with stakeholders and so 

forth. The demand for social responsibility 

from outside the 

Group has changed. It is no longer 

enough simply to behave 

well – we have to prove it, with 

facts and figures. 

This is where the Report comes 

in: it is our starting point for engaging 

with our stakeholders. 

The 2009 Report, which was officially 

presented in Milan in September, 

boasts lots of new features. 

First and foremost in terms 

of content: there is less text, to 

make it easier to read and find 

information; there are more facts 

and figures, and fewer general 

observations. For the first time 

ever, we are able to provide a 

copy on USB flash drive and on 

the Internet website, supplemented 

with additional in-depth 

information. We have also set up 

a dedicated e-mail address (sostenibilita@finmeccanica.com) 

on the Finmeccanica website to 

provide a direct means of gathering 

thoughts, suggestions and 

questions. Finally, there are the 

‘workshops’, or projects looking 

at different aspects of social responsibility 

with the aim of improving 

our products and actions. 

Our attempts to ensure 

concision were made even more 

challenging by the fact that, for 

the first time, the Report also included 

the Environmental Report 

in order to provide an integrated 

analysis of all aspects of 

sustainability in one document. 

Furthermore, it also includes a 

number of in-depth articles on a 

sample of Group companies, albeit 

on a trial basis, to reflect the 

gradual broadening of the scope 

of reporting. However, it is in 

terms of processes that the most 

significant progress has been 

made: the communications department, 

which is responsible 

for the project, facilitated, co-ordinated 

and edited the Report. 

The choice of topics and the revision 

of the text was handled directly 

by the various departments 

with responsibility for each 

particular field. The clear 

objective was to achieve the highest 

possible level of involvement 

within the different organisations: 

in this way, the Sustainability 

Report becomes a ‘team 

effort’ that finds increasing acceptance 

and – most importantly 

– can reach and motivate more 

and more people within the 

Group, starting with all those 

who can help to improve it. A 

point of co-ordination is certainly 

needed, and to this end a 

dedicated working group was 

established to monitor all stages 

of the project, from the planning 

and data collection through to 

processing and the end product. 

The value added that a group of 

staff can provide to the other departments 

and the companies 

fosters a greater dissemination 

of the culture, and is an important 

way of supporting the development 

of new processes and 

application tools, by constantly 

facilitating dialogue with the various 

internal and external 

authors, comparing performance 

against best practices and 

proposing new ideas and 

projects. There is still a lot of 

complex work to be done. Starting 

with the results already obtained 

on an accounting level, 

we need to apply these to corporate 

decision-making processes 

with increasing determination, 

measuring the social and environmental 

impact of our production 

activities with ever greater 

accuracy. 

The experience that we have 

gained thus far will help us to 

progress, with the prospect of 

producing a proper fully certified 

Sustainability Account in the 

near future. The achievements 

made this year thanks to the ongoing 

support of senior management 

and the increasing awareness 

of the employees with 

whom we worked encourage us 

to keep going, placing ever greater 

emphasis on ‘sustainable’ 

conduct so that together we can 

create a stronger Group, ready to 

face a future that offers us even 

more opportunities. 

The Sustainability Working Group 

Finmeccanica 

in the Dow Jones 

Sustainability Indexes 

Finmeccanica has been included for 

the first time in the prestigious 

Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes 

(DJSI World and DJSI Europe), the 

major stock market indexes that 

track company performance in 

terms of financial, environmental 

and social sustainability. The DJSI 

includes only the sustainability 

leaders that represent the top 10% 

of the 2,500 biggest companies 

worldwide. Finmeccanica was the 

only aerospace and defence 

company in the world to be added. 

36 37

F O C U S 

9/2010 


ENVIRONMENTAL 

RESPONSIBILITY 

FINMECCANICA’S RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE 

COMES IN THE FORM OF ITS CARBON MANAGE- 

MENT SYSTEM, WHICH TAKES SUSTAINABILITY AS 

ITS GUIDING PRINCIPLE, TOGETHER WITH THE 

CONVICTION THAT SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND 

THE CAPACITY FOR INNOVATION ARE THE KEY TO 

CONFRONTING THE EMISSIONS CHALLENGE 

Climate change is one of 

the greatest challenges 

that mankind will have to 

tackle in the coming years. 

Increasing temperatures, melting 

ice-caps and more frequent 

floods and droughts are all aspects 

of the same phenomenon: 

climate change is now happening. 

The risks to the planet and 

future generations are enormous 

and require our urgent intervention. 

Many organisations, 

most notably the Intergovernmental 

Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC), have demonstrated 

the need to reduce CO2 

emissions and undertaken numerous 

scientific, political and 

regulatory initiatives aimed at 

mitigating the effects of CO2 

and other greenhouse gas emissions. 

The climate change challenge 

The need to fight climate 

change and reduce its carbon 

footprint are key elements in an 

organisation’s transition to environmental, 

economic and social 

sustainability. The challenge 

is a significant one. As well as requiring 

new approaches to a 

changed regulatory and economic 

environment, it also creates 

opportunities associated 

with new business models, 

which will have a profound impact 

on companies’ performance 

and constitute one of the 

key factors for generating shareholder 

value. For Finmeccanica, 

this will mean the opportunity 

to develop and implement new 

businesses. From this perspective, 

many Group companies are 

already involved in applying 

technology and services to meteorology 

and the study of meteorological 

phenomena connected 

with climate change (SE- 

LEX Sistemi Integrati), Earth observation 

and ocean monitoring 

(Telespazio), creating plants and 

systems for generating clean 

energy (Ansaldo Energia) and 

for low-emission transport systems, 

aircraft and helicopters 

(AnsaldoBreda, Alenia Aeronautica 

and AgustaWestland). 

Everyone is fully aware that reducing 

CO2 will provide the 

Group with another opportunity 

in the medium term to tackle 

at various levels the economic 

crisis currently under way and to 

lay down the foundations for a 

sustainable future. 

Finmeccanica and emissions 

management 

In 2006, Finmeccanica Group 

Real Estate (FGRE), which is responsible 

for addressing, co-ordinating 

and controlling environmental, 

health and safety issues, 

launched a series of activities 

relating to CO2 emissions 

arising from the activities carried 

out at the Group’s sites. The 

first initiative concerned the application 

of the Emissions Trading 

Directive. In 2008, the Group 

carried out a preliminary study 

for the Carbon Management 

System (CMS) and following 

analysis of the results, decided 

to review its environmental policy 

and create a system to manage 

CO2 emissions. 

Structure and governance of the 

Carbon Management System 

The Carbon Management System 

was developed and implemented 

using international 

standards and globally recognised 

guidelines and databases 

(ISO, IPCC, GHG Protocol) as reference 

material. The CMS allows 

the Group to carry out: 

• analysis, monitoring and re- 

38 39

F O C U S 


Total CO2 emissions in 2009 

Indirect emissions 

Scope I 

Direct GHG* 

emissions 

Scope II 

Indirect GHG 

emissions 

Scope III 

Other indirect 

emissions 

> Combustion 

> Process 

* Greenhouse Gases 

> Electricity consumpion 

> Employee travel 

> Production of raw materials 

> Goods transport 

> Waste disposal 

CARBON 

MANAGEMENT 

SYSTEM: 

DEDICATION THAT 

TREADS LIGHTLY 

porting of emissions by purpose, 

group, sector of activity, 

company and site; 

• comparisons with historical 

data and forecasts; 

• analysis of the environmental 

and economic impact; 

• measurement of the effectiveness 

of programmes to reduce 

emissions; 

• communication of the Group’s 

performance in reducing emissions 

to interested parties. 

Under the governance structure 

of the CMS, FGRE is responsible 

for addressing, co-ordinating 

and controlling the system, the 

operating companies for its 

planning and organisation, and 

the individual sites for the technical 

and operational aspects of 

management. At present, the 

CMS allows for reporting on the 

six greenhouse gases governed 

by the Kyoto Protocol – carbon 

dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous 

oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons 

(PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons 

(HFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride 

(SF6) – relating to Scope I, Scope 

II and Scope III emissions produced 

directly or indirectly by 

Finmeccanica. For the year 

2009, total emissions were 1 

million tonnes of CO2 equivalent 

(Scope I: 95% coverage; Scope II: 

100% coverage; and Scope III: 

20% coverage). 

Objectives and areas of intervention 

Implementation of the system 

is expected to be complete in 

the period 2010-2011 with the 

coverage of the shortfall relating 

to Scope III emissions; the 

definition of roles, resources and 

responsibilities for climate change 

in the Group’s companies and 

sites; the development of training 

activities relating to climate 

change; the preparation and dissemination 

of guidelines on CO2 

data reporting and managing 

environmental emergencies 

connected with climate change. 

These objectives, which reflect 

the contents of Finmeccanica’s 

Environmental Policy, are in line 

with the CO2 reduction objectives 

included in the 2009 Sustainability 

Report (available on 

the Group’s website) and the 

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), 

namely a 15-20% reduction in 

CO2 emissions by 2015. The 

Group will pursue this objective 

through a series of measures 

and activities relating mainly to 

the following areas: 

• Energy: reduced energy consumption 

and the use of 

clean energy sources; 

• Process efficiencies; 

• Water: efficient use, recycling, 

recovery, improved treatment 

processes; 

• Mobility and transport: reduced 

CO2 emissions in transporting 

goods and people; 

• Waste: reduced volumes pro- 

duced, better segregation, recovery 

and recycling. 

While the 1970s environmentalist 

motto “Think globally, act locally” 

has taken on new meaning 

and value in relation to the 

need for individuals and organisations 

to take responsibility for 

reducing CO2 emissions, science, 

technology and the capacity for 

innovation, including in management, 

are, and will continue 

to be, the guiding force in minimising 

the risks posed by climate 

change. 

In line with the international regulatory context 

and the evolution of scientific evidence on climate 

change, the Finmeccanica Group is committed 

to improving its activities to reduce its 

overall impact as regards atmospheric greenhouse 

gases emissions. 

Excerpt from Finmeccanica’s Environmental 

Policy 

The Carbon Management System is a system 

that allows an organisation to develop and implement 

a policy and establish objectives and 

targets to reduce its carbon footprint. The system 

takes into consideration legal, economic 

and other requirements in relation to the 

Group’s carbon footprint. The Carbon Management 

System includes the areas of planning, 

implementation, monitoring, instigation of improvement 

measures and reporting. 

40 

41

F O C U S 


THE MEDITERRANEAN: 

AN AREA RICH IN 

OPPORTUNITY 

THE COUNTRIES THAT SHARE THE MEDITERRANEAN 

COASTLINE ARE EXTREMELY INTERESTING MARKETS, 

WHERE FINMECCANICA ALREADY MAINTAINS A SIGNIF- 

ICANT INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL PRESENCE 

Ever since the second half of the 

1990s, but during the past ten 

years in particular, trade between 

the EU and the ‘wider’ 

Mediterranean region (from Turkey to 

Morocco, including the Middle East) 

has become increasingly important, 

and is far higher than trade between 

the EU and the US: exports to countries 

in the wider Mediterranean region 

account for almost 20% of Europe’s 

total, whereas exports to the 

US amount to less than half that. Imports, 

on the other hand, account for 

15% of the total figure. For this reason, 

the Mediterranean is assuming ever 

greater strategic importance for Italian 

foreign policy and the country’s 

geo-economy. Italy, thanks to its geographic 

position as the region’s centre 

of gravity, will be able to play an increasingly 

influential role, emphasising 

its orientation towards Asia Minor 

and the Middle East, and even extending 

as far as the Gulf region. The 

effect of this development is also to 

be seen in the progressive strengthening 

of bilateral ties between Italy 

(and naturally also the EU) and the 

various countries around the shores 

of the Mediterranean Sea, following a 

strategy of forming alliances that 

Italy has been developing for some 

time, independently of the country’s 

internal politics, with a propensity towards 

balanced multilateralism characterised 

by ‘privileged’ discussions at 

government level (government to 

government). 

The countries around the Mediterranean 

are home to more than 200 

million people, making this a market 

with huge potential. Taken as a 

whole, countries like Morocco, Algeria, 

Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Turkey 

have enjoyed overall GDP growth 

over the past ten years of more than 

4%. Although in 2000 these countries’ 

combined GDP was only 45% of 

Italy’s GDP at the time, that percentage 

has already risen to 65% today, 

and according to forecasts by The 

Economist it could reach 75% by 2014. 

By the end of 2020, it is projected that 

their combined GDP could be equal to 

almost 90% of the GDP that Italy is 

expected to achieve by that year. It is 

also important to remember that this 

growth has been achieved independently 

of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership 

established in Barcelona in 

1995 with the aim of setting up a freetrade 

area and promoting balanced 

Above: a view of Algiers harbour 

development. This process was intended 

to be completed by 2010, but 

many of its original conditions have 

not yet been implemented. For example, 

Egypt exports more goods to Italy 

than any other country except the US, 

placing Italy ahead of Germany, the 

UK and a number of Arab countries. 

As regards Morocco, Italy is part of the 

‘Agadir area’ (the zone between 

Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and 

Lebanon), which forms the initial step 

towards the 2010 Euro-Mediterranean 

free-trade area. A treaty has finally 

been signed with Libya to conclude 

the dispute that dates back to 

the colonial era, opening up prospects 

for Italy to establish close ties with 

the country in relation to economic 

co-operation and security. Relations 

between Italy and Turkey have been 

further strengthened by the South 

Stream gas pipeline initiative. However, 

there are still a number of difficulties 

preventing the Middle East and 

North Africa from receiving investment 

on the scale envisaged by the 

Barcelona Process, particularly as re- 

42 43

F O C U S 


gards potential risks relating to political 

instability and the local productive 

formula, as well as the assessment of 

comparative advantages. In this situation, 

Italy can play a key role in removing 

these difficulties through 

agreements that lay the foundations 

for a network of trust based on security, 

commercial guarantees and technology 

transfer that is sustainable, 

feasible and therefore manageable. In 

this regard, Italy is supporting a number 

of objectives – individually, as part 

of the EU and through NATO – including 

multilateral regional security for 

the area of the Mediterranean, ever 

deeper economic and financial links 

capable of distributing wealth more 

evenly between the north and south 

of the region and, finally, a strong 

drive for cultural and social development 

(modern education, especially 

in rural areas, equal rights for women, 

protection for children and much 

more besides). 

ing advantage across the board of the 

Group’s skills and capabilities in order 

to make the most of synergies, adopting 

a structured and targeted approach 

to a country that can serve as 

the basis for a policy of assertiveness 

and subsequent consolidation rooted 

in local industry and, finally, focusing 

all our attention on clients in order to 

understand their needs and thus be 

in a position to offer the most suitable 

solutions, products and services. 

In light of this, the Mediterranean 

and North African regions represent 

extremely interesting markets that 

Finmeccanica has been courting for a 

number of years, and in which the 

Group has already established a significant 

commercial and industrial 

presence. These are areas that form 

part of our strategy of selective international 

growth, on a par with more 

high-profile countries such as India, 

Brazil and, for civil activities, China 

Internationalisation strategies 

Expansion in international markets is 

one of the main strategic objectives 

of the Finmeccanica Group. The 

progress that has been made on this 

front can be judged from the fact that 

40% of Group revenues originate 

from non-domestic clients (i.e. those 

that are not Italian, British or American). 

However, achieving growth in 

international markets requires the 

implementation of measures to keep 

pace with ever greater competition, 

and this necessity will only increase in 

the future. For the Finmeccanica 

Group, this involves continuous action 

along four main strategic lines: 

updating the product range to offer 

innovative integrated solutions, takand 

Russia. As we have already seen, 

Italy is ideally placed geographically 

to act as the region’s centre of gravity, 

providing a hub for potential commercial 

trade between North Africa 

and Asia Minor, as well as offering access 

to the Balkans. Today, and increasingly 

in the future, the countries 

of the Mediterranean will represent a 

source of widening opportunity for 

value creation that will be of mutual 

benefit, not just for industrial returns, 

but also for consolidating relationships 

and cultural development. 

The primary areas of business on 

which we will be working and for 

which we will propose our solutions 

and products are therefore these 

countries’ infrastructure modernisation 

plans in the fields of transport, 

energy, security and protection. It is 

the GDP growth enjoyed by these 

countries that makes these plans 

feasible. In the past three years, the 

Group has signed contracts worth 

over EUR 4 billion in these countries, 

mainly relating to helicopters, transport, 

energy, security and space. The 

key elements of Finmeccanica’s 

strategy for approaching these areas 

can be summarised in three points: 

firstly, establish a Group presence in 

the country, which can be used to 

develop institutional relationships 

that will allow the Group to be 

recognised as a potential commercial, 

industrial and technological 

partner of choice; secondly, identify 

and establish manufacturing/technological 

partnerships with local 

contacts; and, finally, take advantage 

of developments in government-togovernment 

relationships and thus 

benefit from the support of the national 

government. 

Examples of three major achievements 

• Libya. Using initial collaboration in 

the area of maintenance and upgrading 

work for commercial helicopters 

as a starting point, Finmeccanica 

has developed and agreed to 

a joint venture with the relevant local 

authorities (financial authorities 

and those responsible for economic/industrial 

development) extending 

to the transport, energy 

and security sectors as regards new 

infrastructure and modernisation 

projects involving not just Libya, 

but also other African and Middle 

Eastern countries. The Libyan authorities 

will provide the necessary 

financial resources for these projects, 

in exchange for a commitment 

that some of the industrial 

activities required for the development 

and construction of the infrastructure 

will be based locally. 

• Turkey. Finmeccanica, through 

AgustaWestland, has signed an 

agreement with the Turkish aerospace 

industry for the joint development 

of the T129 helicopter. This 

agreement will also generate significant 

benefits for AgustaWestland’s 

Italian plants as regards 

both engineering and production 

activities. Under the agreement, 

the Turkish industry will be responsible 

for the promotion and sale of 

the T129 on foreign markets, and 

the Turkish Armed Forces have already 

become the first customer to 

purchase the helicopter. This collaboration 

is opening up interesting 

new prospects in the Turkish 

market for AgustaWestland’s other 

businesses. 

• Algeria. The Group has already established 

a foothold in the Algerian 

market thanks to the sale of 

AW101s and major power plants. 

Other potential areas of development 

include security and shipbuilding. 

Taking advantage of the recovery 

Overall, the current picture and future 

outlook for the Finmeccanica 

Group in the Mediterranean, North 

African and Middle Eastern regions 

confirm the success of the strategic 

approach taken and the resulting development 

of the business. The 

Group has established itself as an authoritative 

and preferred industrial 

partner able to respond to critical 

(defence and security) and infrastructural 

requirements in the aerospace, 

defence and security, transport and 

energy sectors, adopting a strong position 

in these countries as a result. 

Each country requires that an industrial 

presence be accompanied by 

sufficient transfer of technology. For 

the Finmeccanica Group, this means 

setting up partnerships and/or other 

forms of structural collaboration 

with local entities, based on economic 

returns on investment and ensuring 

technological transfer. The strategy 

is also consistent with the approach 

taken by Italy as a whole, 

which looks to offer itself as the leading 

European governmental point of 

contact for the region. The Group is 

therefore able to take advantage of 

support at the national government/institutional 

level. Specific 

measures to generate business are 

also in place in other countries in the 

region: this is true for Egypt, Israel 

and Jordan, for which important initiatives 

are underway that also involve 

the Group’s subsidiary DRS. 

The challenge for Finmeccanica is to 

take advantage of the recovery after 

a difficult period for the global economy, 

especially as far as Western 

economies are concerned, by strengthening 

its standing in international 

markets experiencing high rates of 

growth, starting with those on its 

doorstep that appear to have the 

necessary resources for local industrial 

development, while also bringing 

benefits for the Group’s companies 

and the sector as a whole. 

Above: two mosques in central Istanbul. 

Facing page: part of the Libyan desert 

44 

45

F O C U S 


KAZAKHSTAN: 

A STRONG 

PARTNERSHIP 

CONTRACT SIGNED BETWEEN THE KAZAKH RAIL OPERA- 

TOR AND THE JOINT VENTURE FORMED BY ANSALDO STS 

AND REMLOKOMOTIVE: AN IMPORTANT STEP IN THE IN- 

DUSTRIAL COLLABORATION LAUNCHED IN NOVEMBER 

2009 DURING PRESIDENT NAZARBAEV’S VISIT TO ROME 

On 3-4 June 2010, Pier Francesco 

Guarguaglini, Chairman and 

CEO of Finmeccanica, took 

part in the Foreign Investors Council 

and the Kazakhstan Investment 

Summit, held in Almaty, at the invitation 

of the President of Kazakhstan, 

Nursultan Nazarbaev, and 

the Kazakh Prime Minister, Karim 

Massimov. The invitation marked the 

official recognition of the strength 

of the partnership between the Finmeccanica 

Group and the central 

Asian country, launched successfully 

in 2007. Kazakhstan is a rapidly developing 

country with a very young 

and highly qualified population, as 

well as a key partner for the supply 

of energy to Italy and EU member 

states. The Kazakh government has 

launched a plan to modernise its infrastructure 

focused on the creation 

of rail transport networks aimed at 

integrating the country into the major 

international logistics networks. 

This is estimated to entail a total investment 

of around USD 24 billion. 

In this regard, a contract worth 

around EUR 70 million was also 

signed, in the presence of Prime 

Minister Massimov, between the 

Kazakh rail operator Kazakhstan 

Temir Zholy and the joint venture 

comprising Ansaldo STS and Remlokomotive 

to build signalling systems 

for the Zhetygen-Khorgos line. 

This is the first order in relation to 

the development of the Kazakh railways 

and forms part of the industrial 

partnership instigated in November 

2009 during President Nazarbaev’s 

visit to Rome. On that occasion, in 

the presence of the Italian Prime 

Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, agreements 

were signed in a number of 

sectors, such as rail (the Italian oper- 

Left: the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan 

Nazarbaev, with Pier Francesco Guarguaglini. 

Facing page, from top: the Tien Shan 

mountains and Astana, the capital of 

Kazakhstan 

ator Ferrovie dello Stato will also 

lend its support to the Kazakh rail 

operator’s reorganisation and development 

programme), electro-optics, 

security, helicopters and urban transport. 

The current flowering of opportunities 

for commercial and industrial 

partnerships between the Finmeccanica 

Group and Kazakhstan 

demonstrates the farsightedness of 

the decision to target the country as 

a strategic partner as part of a diversified 

internalisation strategy, which 

is built on valuable relationships with 

large countries showing rapid 

growth, and the technological excellence 

and competitiveness of the 

Group’s products and systems. 

46 47

F O C U S 


VOLANDIA: HISTORY 

TAKES FLIGHT 

Marco Reguzzoni 

Chairman of Volandia 

MAY SAW THE INAUGURATION OF A PARK AND MU- 

SEUM NOT FAR FROM MALPENSA AIRPORT THAT 

COUNTS FINMECCANICA AMONG ITS FOUNDING 

PARTNERS. VISITORS CAN EXPLORE AN AREA COVER- 

ING 60,000 SQUARE METRES CONTAINING MORE 

THAN 30 AIRCRAFT AND 1,000 MODELS. A VOYAGE 

THROUGH WORLD AVIATION’S PAST TO ITS PRESENT 

There are already numerous 

grounds for calling Varese 

the ‘province with wings’, 

and since May there is yet another 

reason why this description is 

so fitting: Volandia, the park and 

museum in Vizzola Ticino, was inaugurated 

on 8 May on the site 

of the former Caproni workshops 

founded in 1910, just a few metres 

from Malpensa Airport with 

a direct connection to Terminal 1. 

Passion, talent, persistence and 

determination were the vital ingredients 

that enabled all those 

involved in this wonderful undertaking 

to complete a project that, 

I am confident, will help the 

province of Varese to spread its 

wings even further, managing to 

charm both those who already 

have a strong interest in aircraft 

and those who are yet to fall under 

their spell. In other words, 

Volandia is an excellent opportunity 

to help people find out 

more about our sector, the companies 

in it and the aspects that 

make it unique. I can guarantee 

that few will remain untouched 

by the magic and grandeur they 

feel upon entering the park, 

which covers an area of 60,000 

square metres and where more 

than 30 aircraft and 1,000 models 

are on display, taking visitors 

on a journey through the history 

of world aviation. Special attention 

is dedicated to the leading 

companies in the sector: 

These pages: Volandia, the park 

and museum in Vizzola Ticino, Varese 

Caproni, SIAI Marchetti, Macchi 

and Agusta, to name but a few. 

There is also technical equipment 

such as flight simulators 

and an outdoor play park for our 

youngest visitors. 

But I don’t want to deprive anyone 

of the excitement of experiencing 

the museum first-hand 

by giving a detailed description 

of the models on display, as it 

simply wouldn’t be the same. My 

words are unlikely to be able to 

convey the essence of the 

Volandia project, which is managed 

by the Aeronautics Museum 

Foundation and was 

brought about by the commitment 

of the Province of Varese 

and the Lombardy Region. The 

project counts Finmeccanica, 

the SEA airports, Fondazione 

Cariplo, the municipality of 

Varese and the municipalities 

of the Malpensa area, the Air 

Vergiate flight training organisation, 

Fiera Milano, Parco del 

Ticino natural park, Fondazione 

Comunitaria del Varesotto, Sec- 

ondomona SpA and Fondazione 

BPU among its partners and 

founders. Looking back, 15 years 

went by between the first steps 

being taken in the project and 

its completion. This stage is at 

the same time both the conclusion 

and the start of a journey 

that I have shared with local 

residents, the institutions and 

the many volunteers from the 

Friends of Volandia association, 

who include enthusiasts and 

former employees of aeronautics 

companies. For the past 15 

years, we have been working 

tirelessly to make this dream a 

reality, and I feel it is important 

to emphasise that this is a 

dream shared by many of the 

people who have worked in this 

sector and who still work in it 

today. The flight industry, and 

now Volandia too, represents an 

irreplaceable driving force in 

this region and is emblematic 

of the strong ties between past 

and present that cannot but 

give us hope for the future. 

48 

49

H I S T O R Y 


A MOTORCYCLING 

LEGEND 

THE HISTORY OF THE MV AGUSTA BEGAN WITH A COUNT 

WHO LOVED MOTORBIKES AND RACING. THE RACE TRACKS 

REWARDED HIM WITH 75 WORLD TITLES WON OVER 34 

YEARS. BUT THIS LEGENDARY COMPANY’S JOURNEY START- 

ED WITH A HUMBLE VESPA 

Marco Riccardi 

Editor-in-chief of Motociclismo 

The first MV Agusta should have 

been a Vespa. This motorcycle, 

designed in 1943, was kept hidden 

from the Germans who occupied 

the factory at Cascina Costa di 

Verghera, and was supposed to be 

called Vespa 98, as written on the 

front mudguard. Then it was discovered 

that the name had been registered 

by Piaggio for its extremely 

popular scooter, so the managers of 

MV chose a simpler acronym that 

would indicate the displacement, 

with the addition of Turismo, Lusso 

or Sport according to the lavishness 

of the suspension and trimmings. 

The MV 98 was unveiled in October 

1945 and was a far cry from the performance 

and technical specifications 

of the MVs that were to sweep 

all before them on the race track: it 

was extremely simple and light, had a 

single-cylinder, two-stroke engine, a 

two-speed gearbox, just 2.5 HP, a 

chassis made of thin steel tubes, no 

suspension for the back wheel, and 

cost 98,000 lire. But the 98 was popular 

and two years later came the 125cc 

version, followed by a twin-cylinder 

version with the same displacement 

and finally the B125 scooter in 

stamped plate with a two-stroke engine. 

This was still the era of ‘utilitarian’ 

transport: it was something that 

Italians needed to get around, to go 

to work and to enjoy their holidays, 

and the MV was perfectly placed to 

meet this need, successfully manufacturing 

over 27,000 motorbikes and 

scooters a year (1957). But all this was 

not enough for the Sicilian Count 

Domenico Agusta, eldest son of Giovanni, 

who had founded Cantieri 

Aeronautici Agusta in 1927: racing 

competitions were his passion and 

money was no object, as he set about 

engaging the best designers and engineers 

of two-wheeled vehicles. In 

1950, MV officially inaugurated the 

Racing Division, a sacrosanct and 

mysterious place, where the most 

beautiful racing machines were built, 

such as the three-, four- and six-cylinder 

350-500 models. Count Domenico 

wanted to compete in the world 

speed championships, the highest expression 

of motorcycle sport, but this 

was also the reign of Gilera and Moto 

Guzzi. The Count loved sensationalism 

and chose his grand entry into 

racing as the occasion to introduce a 

revolutionary motorcycle at the Milan 

Motor Show in November 1950: this 

was the 500 Gran Sport, the first fourcylinder 

production model for this 

displacement, some 20 years ahead 

of the launch by Honda of its legendary 

CB750 Four, and it caused 

quite a stir among fans and mechanics 

alike. The Gran Sport was the 

‘street’ version of the GP500, which 

was ridden in the championships by 

Arciso Artesiani: the bike made its debut 

on 2 July 1950 in Belgium at the 

Spa-Francorchamps circuit, finishing 

fifth overall. A more than honourable 

beginning that paved the way to 

many successes in the Meccanica 

Verghera colours. At the end of its 

long career, which came to a halt in 

1976, it could boast 75 world titles and 

275 Grand Prix wins. The GP500 was 

designed by Pietro Remor, the creator 

of the Gilera motorcycles that regularly 

won the world championships: 

in technical terms, its design was 

based on the GP models made by 

Gilera at its factory in Arcore, but with 

the addition features not normally 

seen on racing bikes, such as a cardan 

shaft final drive and torsion bar suspension. 

The first GP500 had a maximum 

engine horsepower of 50 HP at 

9,000 rpm and could reach a speed of 

190 km/h. The MV won its first world 

title in 1952 in the 125cc class with 

Englishman Cecil Sandford riding a 

13-HP, 78kg single cylinder twin-camengined 

machine, while the 500 took 

the honours in 1956 with John Surtees, 

the only rider to win a world title 

in both Grand Prix motorcycle racing 

and Formula One. Giacomo Agostini’s 

extraordinary career began in 1965, 

when, at 23 years old, Count Domenico 

teamed him up with the great 

Mike Hailwood, and ‘Ago’ came close 

to winning the world title, finishing in 

second place behind Mike the Bike. 

Agostini was to better this performance 

on an MV some thirteen times – 

six on a 350 and the rest on a 500 – on 

50 51 

Facing page: the first MV produced. Initially, it 

was going to be called Vespa, but the name 

already belonged to the Piaggio scooter 

Left: Domenico Agusta and champions 

Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood, 1965. 

Above: MV Agusta Sport Ipotesi 350, 1976. 

Top from left: MV Agusta Gran Sport of 1950; 

three-cylinder 500 models lined up on the 

straight of the Monza circuit

H I S T O R Y 


his way to becoming the legend that 

no rider has ever equalled and that 

perhaps no-one ever will. The racing 

division continued to rack up victories 

but required huge financial investment. 

Furthermore, the manufacture 

of production models was not able to 

repeat the early successes, although 

the extraordinary sporting achievements 

of MV models acted as a showcase 

for the MV name. Italians of the 

1960s economic boom period increasingly 

set their sights on the car and 

no longer wanted cheap motorcycles. 

MV’s motorcycle division was continuously 

being subsidised by income 

from aeronautics, which was very successful 

at the time (the agreement 

with US company Bell in 1952 for the 

construction under licence of AB47G 

helicopters was a fundamental turning 

point). The company continued to 

struggle on until deciding in 1962 to 

reduce the number of models in its 

range and to cut production costs. 

Despite the crisis, Count Agusta still 

wanted to surprise, and in 1965 the 

extraordinary 500 was finally produced: 

in the meantime, the displacement 

had increased to 600cc (a 750cc 

model would be produced in 1970), 

and the machine boasted a double 

disk brake, 52 HP at 8,000 rpm and a 

top speed of 177 km/h. Only 310 were 

produced at a price of 1,060,000 lire, 

twice that of a Guzzi V7 motorcycle. 

On 2 February 1971, Domenico Agusta 

died. He was succeeded in the company 

by his brother Corrado. The company’s 

financial problems increased to 

such an extent that in early March 

1973, 51% of the Varese-based company 

was transferred to the stateowned 

EFIM. Following the Count’s 

death and as a result of the greater 

contribution made by aeronautics, 

motorcycles came to be of less importance 

and less interest within Agusta, 

and in 1978 production was halted 

and the company put into liquidation. 

The renaissance of the MV motorcycle 

came about 20 years after the 

Cascina Costa plant closed down 

thanks to brothers Claudio and Giovanni 

Castiglioni, who, after relaunching 

Ducati, announced in 

spring 1992 that they had bought the 

MV Agusta brand. There were no motorcycles 

or technical fittings to be 

recovered, not even the GPs that 

Agostini and his team mates once 

raced in competitions. These unique 

items were however saved thanks to 

the restoration work carried out by a 

group of former Agusta employees, 

and now have pride of place in the 

Cascina Costa museum. Claudio, the 

more avid motorcycle enthusiast of 

the Castiglioni brothers, spearheaded 

the resurgence of MV: the motorcycles 

would be built in Schiranna, 

Lake Varese, not far from Cascina Costa. 

To design the new range of MVs, 

the great motorcycle manufacturer 

Cagiva chose Massimo Tamburini, a 

veritable genius of the motorcycle, 

who had designed the Ducati 916, 

the most beautiful sports superbike 

of the second millennium. Tamburini 

did not disappoint, and created another 

masterpiece: the MV Agusta 

F4. It fell to Giacomo Agostini to unveil 

the model at the Milan Motorcycle 

Show 1997, where the public were 

truly amazed by such a pure, radically 

sporty and uncompromising line, 

just as a motorcycle built for speed 

should be: in short, a truly Italian motorcycle. 

It has a transverse inline 

four-cylinder 750cc engine designed 

by engineers at Cagiva with initial assistance 

from Ferrari Engineering, 

Maranello’s technology division, and 

is notable for the use of radial valves, 

a cassette gearbox, single-arm front 

fork in light alloy and four-pipe undertail 

exhaust. Then came the Brutale 

750, the naked bike that also 

bore the Tamburini signature. It immediately 

became the benchmark in 

the naked category thanks to the 

beauty of its line and its absolute 

performance. The resurgence of the 

MV Agusta also came via the sale of 

Ducati to US fund TPG (Texas Pacific 

Group) in 1997. This injection of cash 

served to support the new financial 

and industrial commitment, but was 

not enough to keep the company 

afloat and craft the extraordinary 

motorcycles that Castiglione had in 

mind. Following an interval that saw 

interest in MV from both the Piaggio 

Group and Malaysian company Proton, 

although the latter only remained 

at the Lake Varese location 

for little more than two years, in 

mid-July 2008 Harley-Davidson announced 

it had signed an agreement 

to revive the MV Agusta and Cagiva 

brands, leaving the management 

and development of the new motorcycles 

in the hands of Claudio Castiglioni. 

This meant that plans that 

had been on ice for some time could 

now emerge from the computers of 

the Varese-based engineers. These 

included the new F4 1000 – the original 

model has been in the catalogue 

for 12 years, a record for sports bikes 

– and the prototypes of the 3-cylinder 

675cc naked and sports models. 

But after just one year, the American 

dream evaporated following the severe 

crisis suffered by Harley Davidson, 

which saw its sales plummet 

from 350,000 motorcycles delivered 

around the world in 2006 to 223,000 

last year. This has led to the decision 

to sell MV Agusta to concentrate on 

their two-cylinder machines. However, 

there are no fears for the future 

at Schiranna given that in early August 

Claudio Castiglioni regained 

ownership of this glorious brand. 

With Castiglioni at the helm, the 

company will emerge from the crisis 

even stronger than before to build 

ever more beautiful, fast and exclusive 

machines. 

AERMACCHI ON TWO WHEELS: 

THE ‘DOWN-TO-EARTH’ HISTORY 

OF A CHAMPION OF FLIGHT 

Cigno, Chimera, Ala d’Oro, Aletta. 

These almost celestial names 

symbolise the history of Aermacchi, 

but it is a huge three-wheel truck 

that represents the initial expression 

of what the fast motorcycles 

that would be built on Lake Varese 

would come to embody. In its efforts 

to convert to a peace-time industry, 

Aermacchi decided, in common 

with all other aeronautics 

companies – as Piaggio did with its 

Vespa – to embark on a route of 

utilitarian transport and entrusted 

its design for a three-wheel truck to 

Ermanno Bazzocchi, one of its most 

brilliant engineers. The designer 

from Tradate, to whom we owe Aermacchi’s 

exquisite trainer aircraft – 

especially the MB-339 – in 1945 designed 

the MB1, a revolutionary 

mode of transport for its time: it 

had a closed cabin, car-style steering 

wheel, front suspension derived 

from aircraft undercarriages, large 

load capacity, and a 750cc 23-HP 

4–stroke boxer engine. The truck 

was a success and saved the company 

from closing, after which it remained 

in production for nearly 30 

years. The first real Aermacchi motorcycle, 

the Cigno, was unveiled at 

the Milan Motorcycle Show in 1951. 

Appearing at the height of the 

scooter boom, it captured all the 

scooter’s best features: plate bodywork 

that did not dirty the rider’s 

clothes, storage space and an economical 

125cc 2-stroke engine that 

travelled 40 km on one litre. These 

functional qualities were supplemented 

by the safety of driving a 

motorcycle thanks to the large 17- 

inch wheels. However, it was too 

much of a hybrid machine to be really 

pleasing: it was sold at a price 

of 165,000 lire, one thousand more 

than the Vespa. Aermacchi’s motorcycling 

fortunes were slow to take 

off: in 1956, the company unveiled 

the Chimera 175, an innovative and 

streamlined motorcycle, but it was 

ahead of its time. Stripped of its unappreciated 

livery, the Chimera 

gave up its 4-stroke horizontal 

cylinder engine to the lucky series 

of motorcycles whose names began 

with Ala: the Ala Verde 250 of 1959 

was the sportiest Italian motorcycle 

of its time, while the Oro launched 

a generation of independent racers. 

In 1960 came the agreement with 

Harley-Davidson to build small 

bikes, which gave rise to the 2- 

stroke 125s such as the Aletta (1967) 

and the Aermacchi GTS 350 Turistica. 

In 1972, Aermacchi, which had 

gone back to aircraft construction 

as early as 1947, abandoned the motorcycle 

for reasons connected both 

with the decline in the sector and 

its increasing commitment to 

building military aircraft. The company 

was now completely American-owned, 

as AMF had acquired 

Harley-Davidson in the meantime. 

In 1978, AMF-Harley Davidson left 

Schiranna, and in the autumn of 

that year, Claudio and Gianfranco 

Castiglioni identified the former 

Aermacchi premises as the place to 

establish Cagiva, build Swedish 

Husqvarna off-road bikes and restart 

production of beautiful MV 

Agusta models. 

Above and top left: the latest version of the F4. 

Top: the Chimera 175 from 1956. 

It has a 998cc 4-cylinder engine, maximum 

Above and right: the Cigno 125, 1951 

engine horsepower of 186 HP, traction control 

and empty weight of 192 kg. 

Top right: the MV Agusta Sport Ipotesi 350 of 

1976. The line is designed by Giugiaro 

52 53

A E R O N A U T I C S 


ALENIA AERONAUTICA 

THE DREAMLINER 

MAKES ITS 

EUROPEAN DEBUT 

SHOWCASE PAR EXCELLENCE FOR A PRODUCT PAR EXCELLENCE: THE FARNBOR- 

OUGH AIR SHOW WAS THE VENUE FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE BOEING 787 

DREAMLINER, WHICH IS SET TO BE THE BENCHMARK IN CIVIL AVIATION OVER THE 

NEXT DECADES. A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION WAS MADE BY ALENIA AERONAU- 

TICA, WHICH MANUFACTURED 14% OF THE AIRCRAFT 

The Dreamliner 787 landed in Europe and 

was shown to the public at the recent 

2010 Farnborough Air Show near London, 

the largest global showcase for the aeronautics, 

space, defence and security electronics industries, 

which concluded on 25 July. Boeing 

launched the 787 Dreamliner in April 2004, after 

receiving the largest order in its history 

from the Japanese company ANA. It is currently 

the biggest success in the history of commercial 

aviation, with more than 850 aircraft 

ordered by some 55 customers before the first 

flight. Following its roll-out in July 2007 and 

maiden flight last December, the 787 has now 

entered its most intensive phase of continuous 

testing implemented by the US manufacturer. 

Boeing’s stated objective is to make the first 

delivery by the beginning of next year. The new 

twin-engine jet aircraft from the Boeing stable 

is the most advanced programme in the civil 

aviation field, and will represent a benchmark 

in the strategic development of the world’s airlines 

over the next decades. The Boeing 787 

consumes 20% less fuel than aircraft currently 

in service as it is constructed mainly of carbon 

fibre, which in addition to being more resistant 

than aluminium, is lighter. Italian industry is 

playing a key role in the manufacture of the 

Boeing 787 via Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica 

company, that produces the central and 

central-rear sections of the fuselage and the 

horizontal stabilisers, that make up 14% of the 

aircraft’s structure. Alenia Aeronautica’s engineering 

and research centre for the 787 is 

based at the Pomigliano d’Arco plant in Naples, 

where, in addition to testing and aircraft design, 

complex manufacturing activities for the 

‘dream aircraft’ are also carried out. Skilled engineers 

carry out precision work through all 

phases of the production process to make the 

frames and shear ties used for reinforcing the 

aircraft’s fuselage. The whole process is rigorously 

carried out in a clean room, where the 

temperature and pressure are kept constant to 

avoid any contamination of the carbon fibre. 

Production of segments of the fuselage take 

place at Alenia Aeronautica’s new plant in 

Monteiasi/Grottaglie in Taranto, which is dedicated 

entirely to the 787 programme. It is here 

that the central and central-rear sections of 

the aircraft’s fuselage are manufactured in carbon 

fibre using an innovative and largely automated 

production process, covered by exclusive 

patents and boasting equipment that is 

unique in the world. Also in Apulia, at the centre 

of excellence created at its Foggia plant, 

Alenia Aeronautica manufactures the Boeing 

787’s horizontal stabiliser, which consists of 

two monolithic concurred boxes and a central 

junction base, and like the Dreamliner’s fuselage 

and wings, is made of carbon fibre. To produce 

what is the largest monolithic composite 

structure ever made for a commercial aircraft, 

Alenia Aeronautica introduced a highly-specialised 

production process and cutting-edge 

technology for which it holds the patent. 

These pages: Boeing 787 Dreamliner 

54 55

H E L I C O P T E R S 


AGUSTAWESTLAND 

A ‘LINE’ OF 

DEVELOPMENT 

AGUSTAWESTLAND’S STRATEGIC INVESTMENT POLICY CON- 

TINUES IN RUSSIA AND THE OTHER CSI COUNTRIES: GREEN 

LIGHT FOR WORK TO START ON A NEW FINAL ASSEMBLY LINE 

FOR HELICOPTERS ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF MOSCOW, JEWEL 

IN THE CROWN OF HELIVERT, AN AMBITIOUS JOINT VENTURE 

WITH RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS 

The economic powerhouse of Russia, 

covering nine time zones and more 

than 17,000,000 km 2 , offers significant 

opportunities for Western businesses 

as the country begins its recovery from 

recession and sets its sights on growth. 

Russia’s civil helicopter fleet numbers 

around 1,200 aircraft, but with older generation 

helicopters making up the major- 

ity of the fleet and a desire to embrace 

the latest Western technologies, there is 

a strong appetite for partnership. 

Against this backdrop AgustaWestland 

took the first steps towards an industrial 

presence within Russia in the summer of 

2007 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding 

(MoU) with Oboronprom, 

the industrial-investment group and part 

of the Russian Technologies State Corporation. 

The MoU set out plans for the two organisations 

to collaborate on the development 

of helicopter production. A 

Heads of Agreement was later signed at 

the Farnborough International Air Show 

in July 2008 to create a 50:50 joint venture, 

which would run a civil AW139 final 

assembly line in Russia. 

The plans were ratified during the Italy- 

Russia inter-governmental summit in 

November 2008 held at the Kremlin in 

Moscow, and attended by Russian President 

Dmitri Medvedev and the Italian 

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a 

shareholder agreement was subsequently 

signed in this year paving the way for 

the start of construction work. 

The plans are now being realised. The final 

assembly line itself is being built on 

a 40,000 m 2 site in the industrial area of 

Tomolino, near Moscow. With an initial 

capacity for five helicopters a year in 

2011, the eventual capacity of the plant 

will be in excess of 20 aircraft per year by 

2015. The facility is also expected to support 

a workforce of 100 once it is operating 

at maximum output. 

The Tomolino plant will meet the requirements 

of Russia and CIS civil markets 

primarily, but will also be capable of 

supporting other markets worldwide 

through the AgustaWestland network. 

Historically, Western manufacturers have 

Left: an AW139 operated by CHC. 

Facing page: AW139 

landing in Tomolino, Moscow 

56 57

H E L I C O P T E R S 


AGUSTAWESTLAND 

only occupied a small slice of the civil 

helicopter market in Russia, but the 

country is gradually opening its skies to 

the use of helicopters, particularly 

around major cities. The continuing importance 

of the oil and gas sector in Russia, 

plus the emergence of new applications 

such as emergency medical services 

and civil protection, mean that there is 

great potential for future growth in the 

rotary wing sector. 

In June a time capsule was laid at the 

base of the foundations in Tomolino, during 

an official ceremony which was attended 

by representatives and dignitaries 

from the partners. Speaking after 

the ceremony, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer 

of Finmeccanica, said: “We have been 

building a remarkable industrial base in 

Russia in recent years by establishing 

major collaborations with prime local 

companies in various fields of the civil 

sector. This latest landmark provides 

clear evidence of our commitment to 

playing an increasing role in the region 

by the mean of a mutually beneficial industrial 

co-operation, particularly in the 

civil rotorcraft sector.” 

Commenting on the significance of the 

joint venture, AgustaWestland Chief Executive 

Giuseppe Orsi explained: “The 

start of construction work is an important 

milestone in what we believe will be 

a very important partnership for the future. 

AgustaWestland has had a presence 

in Russia for many years and we have 

achieved some important commercial 

sales recently including the AW119, 

AW109 Power, Grand and the AW139. 

However, the HeliVert joint venture will 

bring a different dimension to our presence. 

The AW139 has been identified by 

Russian industry as a benchmark in its 

class and we look forward to the many 

opportunities which exist in Russia and 

CIS civil markets.” 

Oboronprom Director General Andrey 

Reus added: “The start of the plant’s construction 

signifies a new stage of the 

growing mutually beneficial co-operation 

between Russian and Italian helicopter 

manufacturers. Thanks to it we will gain 

access to new technical production solutions 

and high helicopter servicing quality 

standards. We will seek to broaden our cooperation, 

including by gradually localising 

Italian helicopter manufacture in Russia.” 

Oboronprom overview 

The Oboronprom Corporation was formed in 

2002 and is a diversified industrial-investment 

group in the engineering and high technology 

sectors. It employs more than 100,000 people. 

Russian Helicopters is Oboronprom’s helicopter 

manufacturing business. 

Oboronprom’s key activities include: participation 

in defence industry restructuring; 

development of integrated processes in the 

sector; streamlining production, financial and 

economic relations among enterprises; attracting 

foreign investments; consolidating shareholdings 

in defence industry companies. 

BACK IN THE RUNNING FOR MARINE ONE 

AgustaWestland has signed an 

agreement with Boeing enabling 

the two companies to make a 

bid for the US Navy’s Marine One 

programme (VXX) to provide the 

next generation US Presidential helicopter 

fleet. Boeing will acquire a licence 

from AgustaWestland for US 

production of the AW101. The agreement 

gives Boeing the full intellectual 

property, data and production 

rights to convert the AW101 into a 

Boeing product for the VXX competition. 

If selected, Boeing will be the 

prime contractor and will design, 

build and deliver the aircraft, designated 

Boeing 101, at one of its US facilities. 

AgustaWestland’s role will be 

fully addressed once Boeing is on 

contract with the Navy. The original 

VXX contract was awarded in 2005. 

AgustaWestland built four test vehicles 

and five pilot production aircraft 

under an agreement with prime 

contractor Lockheed Martin. The VXX 

programme was halted by the US 

government in 2009 and a new competition 

has since been launched. 

Commenting on the agreement, Pier 

Francesco Guarguaglini, Finmeccanica 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 

said: “Finmeccanica and Boeing 

enjoy a long and successful history 

spanning four decades. We carefully 

evaluated the situation and made a 

strategic decision to work with Boeing 

because it is the best solution for 

the VXX competition.” 

“The agreement with Boeing confirms 

the capability of AgustaWestland 

and Finmeccanica, and AW101 in 

particular, to compete in the American 

market.” AgustaWestland Chief 

Executive Giuseppe Orsi added: “We 

listened to the US customer and 

structured an agreement that best 

meets the Navy’s requirements. After 

careful evaluation we made a 

strategic decision to work with Boeing 

because this is the best solution 

for the VXX competition. The AW101 

is the right aircraft for this mission; 

there are many reasons why it won 

the first time around. It is important 

to keep in mind that AgustaWestland 

received accolades for its performance 

in delivering on time and 

on cost the nine aircraft of the previous 

programme.” 

Right: a Grand helicopter in Russia. 

Top: participants at the inauguration 

ceremony for the new 

assembly line. 

Facing page: the Boeing 101 

58 59

D E F E N C E A N D S E C U R I T Y E L E C T R O N I C S 


DRS TECHNOLOGIES 

REFUELING IN FLIGHT: 

READY FOR TAKE-OFF 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS AMONG THE 

EMPLOYEES OF DRS INTEGRATED 

MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS RE- 

GARDING THE TENDER LAUNCHED BY 

THE AIR FORCE FOR THE NEW MULTI- 

MISSION REFUELING AIRCRAFT. AT 

BOEING – IN THE RUNNING FOR THE 

ORDER – THE FINMECCANICA COM- 

PANY WOULD SUPPLY THE AERIAL RE- 

FUELING OPERATORS STATION, A 

STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION FOR IN- 

FLIGHT REFUELING 

On Monday, June 7, more than 

700 employees at DRS Integrated 

Manufacturing Solutions 

in Johnstown, Pennsylvania 

held a rally to gain local, state and 

national support for Boeing’s bid to 

secure the contract for the NewGen 

Tanker from the US Air Force. 

The NewGen Tanker is Boeing’s latest 

American-made, multi-mission 

aerial refueling aircraft, which Boeing 

asserts will save US taxpayers 

nearly USD 29 billion in fuel consumption 

dollars. The Tanker would 

be an upgrade from the Air Force’s 

current KC-135 tanker, which is also 

made by Boeing, holding more fuel, 

cargo and troops and providing an 

easier to operate interface than the 

current version. Boeing is bidding for 

the contract against French airplane 

manufacturer and EADS subsidiary 

Airbus. The contract is expected to 

be awarded in November. 

The Aerial Refueling Operators Station 

(AROS), which DRS would provide 

for the program, uses state-ofthe-art 

technology to control aerial 

refueling operations. Aerial refueling 

is the process of transferring fuel 

from one aircraft to another during 

flight. As the originator of this technology 

in the 1940s, Boeing has long 

been an industry leader. 

According to Boeing, the AROS will 

deliver improvements over the KC- 

135 Tanker including: 

• an advanced fly-by-wire system 

offering more precise and reliable 

control; 

• a well-developed set of rules that 

are used to determine the commands 

to be sent to a system to 

give the AROS rock-solid flying 

characteristics; 

• the Automatic Load Alleviation 

System, which automatically 

sends flight commands to alleviate 

forces on the boom and reduce 

boom operator workload; 

• a full-time Independent Disconnect 

System that eliminates the 

danger of damage to the AROS or 

the receiver aircraft. Allowing the 

AROS operator to retract the noz- 

zle from the receiver aircraft receptacle 

independent of the state 

of the receiver boom latches; 

• reduced maintenance requirements. 

Estimated at up to USD 50 billion to 

build 179 NewGen Tankers, the proposed 

contract represents economic 

opportunity for Pennsylvania, as 

Boeing plans to utilize several companies 

in the state, including Bren- 

ner Aerostructures in Bensalem; 

Dunmore in Bristol; Maxima Technologies 

in Lancaster; Reiker in Aston; 

and DRS in Johnstown. 

The Tankers will also support approximately 

50,000 jobs throughout 

the United States, with more than 

800 suppliers in more than 40 

states. 

Relying on its history as a trusted 

provider of refueling consoles for 

Boeing’s 767 Tanker sales internationally, 

DRS Integrated Manufacturing 

Solutions would build the AROS 

console and would also be responsible 

for the cable design of the Tanker. 

DRS Integrated Manufacturing Solutions 

is a 180 square foot (55 square 

meter) manufacturing facility that 

provides end-to-end electronic manufacturing 

solutions and services 

ranging from engineering, supply 

chain management, assembly, system 

integration and testing. 

The AROS console allows aerial refueling 

operators to plan, monitor 

and manage their workload more 

effectively. 

Boeing provided a NewGen Tanker 

simulator for the rally, which allowed 

visitors and DRS employees to 

experience the latest technology. It 

provided a simulated refueling of an 

in-flight fighter aircraft and an opportunity 

to see what it would be 

like to pilot the tanker. 

Dignitaries at the rally included US 

Rep. Mark Critz and State Senator 

John Wozniak of Pennsylvania; Cambria 

County, Pa., commissioners; local 

economic development representatives 

and business executives. 

During the rally, a teaming agreement 

was signed by DRS C3 & Aviation 

Group President Alan Dietrich 

and Mark DeVoss, Boeing’s Director 

of Supplier Management for Tanker 

Programs, to mark the partnership 

between the two companies, should 

the US Air Force select Boeing for the 

program. 

Speaking to DRS employees, elected 

officials and others, Dietrich said, 

“The US Air Force selection of a new 

tanker provider will have a major impact 

on the Johnstown area, and especially 

here at DRS. Awarding the 

contract to Boeing would help DRS 

continue to provide quality jobs to 

the great people of this region.” 

When asked why Boeing chose to 

partner with DRS for this potential 

opportunity, Doug Holmes, Boeing’s 

BDS advocacy communications manager, 

replied, “DRS was a great partner 

on the previous RARO (Remote 

Aerial Refueling Operator) programs. 

They completed the international 

tanker program requirements on 

schedule and cost competitively, 

making them a perfect teammate. 

DRS has already proven to The Boeing 

Company that they have the 

know-how and experience to provide 

the AROS refueling stations for 

the next NewGen Tanker. We at Boeing 

believe that our suppliers are 

what make us stand out when bidding 

for these contracts.” 

Right: Alton Lundon of Boeing presents a 

demonstration of the NewGen Tanker refueling 

simulator to a DRS employee 

Above: Alan Dietrich, Chairman of the C3 & 

Aviation Group, and Mark DeVoss, Supplier 

Management Director of Boeing Tanker 

Programs signs a partnership agreement 

60 61



ELSAG DATAMAT 

DESTINATION: 

EFFICIENCY 

MORE PRODUCTIVE RUSSIAN POSTAL SERVICE THANKS TO 

ELSAG DATAMAT: RUSSIA’S FIRST AUTOMATED MAIL SORT- 

ING CENTRE BUILT BY THE COMPANY. THE CENTRE, WHICH 

CAN HANDLE THREE MILLION ITEMS OF POST PER DAY, 

WILL BE THE COUNTRY’S MAIN SORTING HUB 

Some of the main problems affecting 

the Russian Post Office 

include a delivery system unchanged 

since the Soviet era, sorting 

operations that are still carried out 

manually, a slow mail processing 

system and a high probability of 

wrong deliveries. Today the Post Office 

is involved in implementing a 

comprehensive programme to modernise 

its infrastructure and improve 

the efficiency of the service, involving 

the automation of the country’s 

entire logistics network. The first 

stage of this programme was the 

implementation last autumn of the 

country’s first automated sorting 

centre, which has now been fully operational 

since early this year. Built 

under the management of Elsag 

Datamat, the sorting centre in 

Podolsk, near Moscow, uses cuttingedge 

technology developed by the 

company, which is, furthermore, one 

of the few operators in the world 

that designs and implements 

turnkey solutions for the automation 

of complete centres, including 

the supply of the entire national 

postal network. The new centre has 

become the hub of the country’s 

postal system, replacing the 111 communications 

networks in the area 

and the ten main sorting centres in 

Moscow, and carries out the automated 

processing of 3 million items 

of post each day (one fifth of all the 

post sent in the country). The centre 

services the city and region of 

Moscow, together with the surrounding 

regions, which contain 

over 5,200 post offices, and has a 

user base of 26 million people. Located 

over two floors and covering an 

area of 28,000 square metres, Podolsk 

is the largest – and the most important 

– of the facilities that will 

make up Russia’s new postal network, 

and is equipped to carry out 

the automated sorting of all types of 

post: letters, flats (large envelopes, 

newspapers and magazines), sealed 

envelopes and packets. Postal items 

that are unsuitable for mechanised 

sorting are forwarded to manual 

sorting areas. Of the main systems, 

Elsag Datamat provided the Two-Tier 

Stacker Letter Sorting System and 

the Compact Flat Sorter Machine 

(CFSM) at the centre. The Two-Tier 

Stacker is a flexible, ergonomic and 

compact letter sorter equipped with 

outlets on two levels that combines 

high performance with reduced operating 

times. The CFSM handles all 

stages of processing for flat post 

from coding to the secure and monitored 

sorting of registered mail. The 

Podolsk facility also has a ‘hybrid 

post’ system run on a software platform 

by Elsag Datamat. This technology 

allows organisations with a 

large volume of mail (banks, insurance 

companies and utilities) to provide 

data in electronic format, which 

is then reproduced on paper at the 

printing centre nearest to the recipient. 

The letters are then put into envelopes 

and delivered in the traditional 

way. The system provides 

huge advantages and savings for 

users of the service in that they can 

outsource their mail printing and 

envelope insertion operations. Elsag 

Datamat not only supplied the machinery 

and technology, but is also 

responsible for the maintenance of 

the equipment and the professional 

training of the personnel who work 

at the centre. The facility has already 

recorded significant volume growth 

since its launch phase, along with 

the requirement for new functionality 

to improve levels of service 

thanks to the systems provided by 

Elsag Datamat. 

62 

Right: CFSM (Compact Flat Sorter Machine), 

automatic feeder. 

Left: Two-tier Stacker Letter Sorting System 

in use in Podolsk 

63



SELEX COMMUNICATIONS 

TOWARDS THE RADIO 

OF THE FUTURE 

The rapid growth of methods by 

which people communicate 

and the possibility of ‘easily’ 

and cheaply modifying available radio 

systems, are driving an increasing 

technological interest in Software 

Defined Radio. This requirement 

is becoming even more pressing 

in market segments that require 

radios to be reconfigured to meet 

specific needs arising from operational 

logistics. To respond to these 

new needs, SELEX Communications 

started to develop Software Defined 

Radio (SDR) hardware sets some 

years ago and now offers its own solutions 

for this rapidly-growing market. 

SDR technology offers clients 

flexibility and cost savings as well as 

the opportunity to add new functionality 

that can satisfy the new requirements 

of communication. The 

concept is that of an individual hardware 

set for each type of operational 

use (avionics, naval, handheld, broadcast, 

manpack) that can be reconfigured, 

using new software, for different 

radio communications functions, 

according to the desired mode. 

The development of military SDR 

started in the US, and was heavily 

sponsored by the Department of Defense, 

which saw its main objective 

as ensuring interoperability between 

the radio communications 

systems used by the Armed Forces. 

The key programme in this area is 

the Joint Tactical Radio System 

(JTRS), which developed the first SDR 

hardware sets for military use. In a 

military SDR radio, the function that 

executes a specific type of communication 

– Waveform (WF) – is implemented 

via software and can be 

used on other SDR devices. This 

portability is made possible through 

the inclusion of the Software Communication 

Architecture (SCA), a 

matrix framework of the JTRS programme 

that defines the radio’s 

middleware architecture and operating 

environment services to make it 

work on all radio equipment that 

conforms to this standard. Unlike 

the situation in the past when a specific 

radio was needed for each type 

of communication, hardware sets 

built today using SDR technology 

can be configured to meet the needs 

of every mission. Furthermore, in- 

SELEX COMMUNICATIONS IS INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING 

HARDWARE SETS FOR SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO (SDR), A 

SYSTEM IN WHICH RADIO COMMUNICATIONS FUNCTIONS 

MAY BE PROGRAMMED FOR THE REQUIRED MODE. THIS 

TECHNOLOGY MARKS AN IMPORTANT STEP IN THE INTER- 

OPERABILITY OF DIFFERENT SYSTEMS 

creasingly sophisticated wave forms 

are continuously being developed, 

which means the SDRs supplied previously 

can be easily updated. This 

has changed the whole paradigm of 

military radio, which developed from 

a radiocentric premise where radios 

were designed to facilitate a specific 

connection for voice communication 

(and at a secondary level, data) between 

defined elements, to today’s 

system, capable of carrying out multi-role, 

multi-functional applications 

for the exchange of heterogeneous 

data. For these reasons, SDR represents 

the central and enabling element 

in netcentric concepts and capabilities. 

In Europe, it is no coincidence 

that the largest industrial 

groups in this segment are based in 

countries that are particularly interested 

in developing SDR and that, as 

a result, participate in the European 

Secure Software Defined Radio (ES- 

SOR) programme of the inter-governmental 

agency OCCAR (Organisation 

Conjointe de Coopération en Matière 

d’Armement). These are Radio Elektrobit 

(Finland), Indra (Spain), Radmor 

(Poland), Saab (Sweden), Thales 

(France) and SELEX Communications 

(Italy). Under the four-and-a-halfyear 

programme worth over EUR 100 

million, SELEX Communications is 

the leader in defining the European 

standard for the platform’s software 

architecture (ESSOR SCA), which will 

be determined on the basis of the 

software communication architecture 

of the US JTRS programme, and 

in developing a new broadband 

waveform (ESSOR HDR) for secure 

communications with networking 

capabilities dedicated to coalition 

operations. SELEX Communications’ 

leading position in SDR is the result 

of many years of investment and research. 

A member of the Wireless Innovation 

Forum and an active participant 

in the SCA Steering Group, SE- 

LEX Communications started operating 

in the software defined radio sector 

as early as 2002. The wealth of 

know-how and expertise acquired 

over the years has led to its becoming 

a leader in this field. The many 

developments and advances in this 

new technology are primarily reflected 

in the new products of the SDR 

family, including the SWave Handheld 

radio terminal with MANET capabilities, 

the first and only truly 

portable SDR terminal in Europe. But 

SELEX Communications’ product 

range is much wider than that. The 

company has a huge range of stateof-the-art 

SDR products to offer the 

market and has produced a variety of 

broadcast and portable platforms for 

the tactical field. 

Right; SWave Handheld Radio – Multiband, 

Multimission SDR. 

Top: SWave Vehicular Radio – Multichannel, 

Multiband SDR for mobile communications 

between tactical vehicles 

64 

65



SELEX GALILEO 

GUARDIA DI FINANZA 

TEN YEARS WITH ATOS 

THE ATOS MISSION SYSTEM, DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED 

AT THE SELEX GALILEO CASELLE, TURIN SITE, IS CELEBRAT- 

ING AN IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARY: TEN YEARS OF MIS- 

SIONS ON BOARD THE ATR 42MP (MARITIME PATROL). PI- 

LOT AND GROUP CAPTAIN CAMILLO PASSALACQUA, COM- 

MANDER OF THE GUARDIA DI FINANZA AIR-SEA RECON- 

NAISSANCE GROUP (GEA) AT PRATICA DI MARE, RECALLED 

THIS LAST DECADE 

sion in Senegal. In these contexts, the 

Guardia di Finanza crews, aircraft and 

ATOS systems consistently distinguished 

themselves for their operational capacity 

and effectiveness. 

The ATOS mission system, now installed 

on three of our ATR 42MP aircraft, is 

without doubt a key weapon in the force’s 

fight against drug trafficking and all 

other forms of maritime smuggling. The 

effectiveness of the system, combined 

with the aircrafts’ nine-hour flight range, 

enable more than 1000 nautical miles of 

sea to be searched for boats in a single flight. 

ATOS records all monitored activity 

using a built-in system of three cameras: 

an infrared camera for night-time searches, 

a long-range camera to read the names 

of boats being investigated from distances 

of over 10km, and a colour video 

camera to determine their main chromatic 

features . 

The specific policing activities for which 

the planes are used to fulfil the institutional 

objectives of the Guardia di Finanza 

created a further technical requirement: 

guaranteeing the demonstrability of the 

data compiled. As a result, and in addition 

to the above, the system is also designed 

to record and store all data of interest, ge- 

“In 1999, in response to a specific 

operational requirement, we took 

delivery, at the Pratica di Mare base, 

of the first ATOS (Airborne Tactical Observation 

System) mission system from 

SELEX Galileo to be fitted on board one of 

the ATR 42MP aircraft developed by Alenia 

Aeronautica. 

Over the years, the SELEX Galileo team has 

always provided close support both in 

operator training and our operational activities, 

which has enabled them to better 

understand the technical requirements of 

a typical GEA mission and to develop increasingly 

effective and versatile versions 

of the system. The reliability of ATOS, despite 

its complexity, has enabled us to successfully 

complete all of the missions assigned 

to us in ten full years of service, which 

constitute a major test of its operational 

efficiency and integration of the 

platform and on-board equipment. 

The Guardia di Finanza (Italian customs 

authority) is used to working in an international 

environment alongside a range 

of different government bodies. For 

example, the activities undertaken as 

part of FRONTEX to combat illegal immigration 

in complex environmental and 

tactical scenarios, such as the ‘Hera’ misnerating 

video files of recordings and 

photos. 

ATOS and its sensors make the aircraft a 

genuine airborne operating room. 

In ten years of service, ATOS has completed 

10,000 flight hours in Italy and abroad 

in a range of different operations: narcotics, 

smuggling, illegal immigration, public 

health and the environment, either internally 

or on behalf of judicial authorities or 

international bodies, which helps to 

strengthen the image of our airborne section 

as effective and professional. 

There was a significant episode in February 

2009 when, following an intricate 

and complex investigation, the National 

Anti-Mafia Department asked for our support 

to track down a fishing vessel that 

was carrying a record quantity of cocaine. 

An ATR 42MP, fitted with ATOS, was deployed 

for the first time to the Azores, and 

we managed to find the boat 400 nautical 

miles to the west, right in the middle of 

the Atlantic Ocean. It was stopped at sea 

and more than 5,300 kg of cocaine was 

confiscated. The operation was particularly 

appreciated by the National Anti-Mafia 

Prosecutor Mr Grasso, who publicly acclaimed 

the effectiveness of the aircraft 

operated by the Guardia di Finanza.” 

ATOS in the world 

Above: the ATOS platform on the ATR 42MP. 

Facing page: images past and present. 

Top: the ATOS team in 2010; below: ATOS system 

operators of the Guardia di Finanza 

(Air-Maritime Exploration Unit) with instructors 

from SELEX Galileo in 2000 

66 

67 

More than 45 systems sold in the last ten 

years for a range of different fixed- and rotarywing 

platforms – including the ATR 42, 

DASH-8, CN235 and Beechcraft King Air 300 – 

in five different continents. In Italy, it is in use 

on the ATR 42 MPs operated by the Guardia 

di Finanza and the Coast Guard, with a 

lightweight version in use on the P166-DP1, 

also operated by the Guardia di Finanza. 

The Maritime Long Range Surveillance (MLRS) 

version of the system has also recently 

been chosen to equip the Italian Air Force’s 

ATR 72MP aircraft developed by Alenia 

Aeronautica.

S P A C E 


TELESPAZIO 

COSMO-SkyMed © ASI distribuito da e-GEOS 

A SATELLITE 

MOSAIC MAP 

OF ITALY 

68 69 

E-GEOS, A TELESPAZIO AND ITALIAN SPACE 

AGENCY COMPANY OPERATING IN EARTH 

OBSERVATION, RECENTLY COMPLETED 

FULL COVERAGE OF THE ITALIAN TERRI- 

TORY USING RADAR IMAGES GENERATED 

BY COSMO-SKYMED SATELLITES. THE RE- 

SULT OF THE PROJECT IS EXTREMELY HI- 

GH-QUALITY MAPPING THAT OPENS UP 

NEW HORIZONS FOR IMAGES GENERATED 

BY THE CONSTELLATION 

E-GEOS, a joint venture created by Telespazio and 

the Italian Space Agency, plays a key role in the international 

Earth observation sector. For some 

years it has been working on a programme to develop 

applications based on satellite images, a strategy that 

anticipates market requirements and helps to create 

demand for increasingly innovative services using 

geospatial information. In this regard, the company, 

which is based in Rome with operational centres in 

Matera and Neustrelitz, Germany, invests independently 

in data acquisition and in the development of solutions 

that use cutting-edge technology. Having completed 

coverage of Italy with multispectral, satellite 

and aerial optical images, it then turned its attention 

to images generated by the radar sensors mounted on 

board the COSMO-SkyMed constellation, financed by 

the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Defence Ministry. 

In February and March, e-GEOS, the exclusive 

worldwide distributor of COSMO-SkyMed data for civil 

use, was engaged in producing coverage of the whole 

of Italy. The project revealed the unique and innovative 

characteristics of the COSMO-SkyMed system, which 

boasts extremely short revisit times as one of its outstanding 

features. The constellation is formed by four 

satellites (three already in orbit and a fourth scheduled 

for launch in October), which allow it to ‘photograph’ 

extremely large geographical areas (in this case the entire 

Italian peninsula) in greatly reduced times. It is capable 

of operating day and night, unrestricted by atmospheric 

conditions including cloud cover. Such performance 

levels are unknown in any other satellite system. 

Thanks to the features of COSMO-SkyMed, 

Left: the COSMO-SkyMed mosaic of Italy. 

One of the features of the COSMO-SkyMed system is its extremely 

short revisit times, allowing it to cover vast geographical areas 

in a short space of time

S P A C E 


TELESPAZIO 

E-GEOS engineers have taken just under two weeks to 

organise and structure all the data captured in a 

geospatial database, which allows the entire area of 

Italy to be viewed and fully managed. This database, 

apart from constituting a valuable source of information, 

will be the starting point for further application 

services. E-GEOS uses radar images, supplemented 

with optical images (satellite and aerial), to undertake 

various types of monitoring, especially the monitoring 

of land and critical infrastructure such as streets, 

bridges and dams. It can also be used in crop monitoring. 

The project to create a database of the entire Italian 

peninsula using COSMO-SkyMed data was an extremely 

complex undertaking, given the vast amount 

of information to collect and collate, involving elaborate 

planning of the acquisition of data from the satellites, 

which could carry out up to six operations a day 

regardless of visibility conditions. Once this work had 

been completed, 165 new satellite acquisitions – all 

from the period February to March 2010 – in combination 

with around 300 images that had been previously 

generated and archived, were used to create the ‘mosaic’ 

that made up Italy. In order to provide complete coverage 

of the national territory, an area of overlap between 

the various scenes was defined. For this reason, 

a total of 500,000 square kilometres was generated to 

cover the approximately 300,000 square kilometres of 

the Italian territory. The final stage of the process was 

the production of the ortho-corrected, ready-for-use 

maps, an operation necessary to correct distortions inherent 

in imagery. The result of this work, which involved 

all the operational units of e-GEOS in Rome and 

Matera, was the creation of an extremely high-quality 

end product, which can open up new horizons, in both 

the commercial and operational arena, for the use of 

COSMO-SkyMed high-resolution data. 

Right: a COSMO-SkyMed image of the Fucino Plain 

and Telespazio's Piero Fanti Space Centre. 

The COSMO-SkyMed mosaic of Italy represents a valuable 

database that will make it possible to develop surveillance 

applications. The status of the agricultural land in the Fucino 

area is shown thanks to a series of successive acquisitions. 

The white star that can be seen at the centre indicates the 

position of the antenna tracking the COSMO-SkyMed satellites. 

The effect is created by the backscattering of the antenna 

directing the satellite 

70 

71 

COSMO-SkyMed © ASI distribuito da e-GEOS

S P A C E 


THALES ALENIA SPACE 

IRIDIUM NEXT: 

NEXT STOP, 

THE FUTURE 

IRIDIUM CHOOSES THALES ALENIA SPACE TO BUILD ITS 

NEW SATELLITE CONSTELLATION NEXT, PROVIDING 

RECOGNITION OF THE COMPANY’S SYSTEM ARCHITEC- 

TURE EXPERIENCE AND CONFIRMING ITS LEADERSHIP IN 

THE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION MARKET 

offer the best price 

for the capability of the 

“They 

constellation, they have a 

tremendous amount of experience 

building telecommunications satellites 

in constellations, and run an 

excellent engineering team.” 

Scott Smith, EVP of Iridium, the 

world’s only truly global mobile 

satellite services provider, needs only 

a few choice words to explain why 

Thales Alenia Space was singled out 

by Iridium among many companies 

to build the company’s next-generation 

satellite constellation, Iridium 

NEXT. Iridium NEXT will replace the 

current in-orbit constellation, allowing 

Iridium to offer current and future 

clients, in as early as 2015, new 

services in mobile telecommunications 

as well as enhanced existing 

‘voice & data’ communications services. 

Thales Alenia Space, the space 

company of Thales and Finmeccanica, 

is charged with fulfilling the order 

from the American-based 

provider. In just five years’ time, it 

will build 66 operational satellites, 6 

in-orbit spares, and 9 ground spares. 

A total of 81 satellites are to be engineered, 

and then, to be developed, 

integrated and tested in a ‘production 

line’, through a highly refined 

production process, as Scott implicitly 

highlighted in his words. Indeed, 

if the work of space companies is 

usually focused on a ‘single shot’ industrial 

and technological effort, or 

is otherwise limited to a few models 

per program, the production of entire 

constellations involves a completely 

different industrial dynamic. 

Thales Alenia Space is one of the 

few worldwide driving forces of 

space science that can meet such 

complex production challenges. It 

has already demonstrated this in 

the past by developing, through innovative 

approaches, the satellite 

fleet of another American telecommunication 

giant, Globalstar, and it 

is also currently in charge of the production 

of second-generation satellites 

for this client. 

The commitment with Iridium 

NEXT, a contract worth USD 2.1 billion, 

is awarding an already consolidated 

knowledge-base, as emphasized 

by Reynald Seznec, President 

and CEO of Thales Alenia Space: “It 

is a clear acknowledgement of our 

experience in systems architecture 

and in telecommunications in general. 

It is also a reaffirmation of our 

leadership in the market of satellite 

constellations.” 

Iridium, on its part, is relying on Iridium 

NEXT to optimize its own global 

offer of telecommunication services 

capable of supplying solutions 

to the maritime and avionic markets, 

from public institutions (governments 

and military entities) to 

private companies. And, if numbers 

cannot demonstrate everything, 

they can certainly help understand 

a lot about the commercial size of 

this provider. Its commercial adventure 

started in 2000 with a few 

clients. Presently, 10 years later, the 

company claims more than 383,000 

subscribers and more than 290 

companies involved in the process 

of ‘manufacturing’ services for endusers. 

The great challenge now is to 

progress with Iridium NEXT in the 

field of mobile communications because, 

although the mobile wireless 

industry has been growing at a fast 

rate over the last twenty years, it 

still covers less than 10% of the 

planet’s surface. 

Thales Alenia Space’s commitment 

will be to guarantee that Iridium 

NEXT will be fully compatible with 

the already in-orbit system as well 

as fully operational, even throughout 

the transition phase, drawing 

on its experience in the production 

of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) platforms, a 

satellite ‘network’ already synonymous 

with quality and reliability in 

the space telecommunications field. 

On the other hand, the European 

companies will be called to perform 

the technological quality breakthrough 

required by Iridium, using 

high performance equipment such 

as the sophisticated L-band antenna, 

specially meant for third-generation 

mobile services. 

This will be a great challenge, due to 

a fast-approaching deadline, that 

Thales Alenia Space is ready to best 

with the support of over four hundred 

people that will work on the 

program at multiple sites, in France, 

Italy and Belgium. Thales as a prime 

contractor will manage the programme 

from Toulouse, with activities 

distributed among the plants of 

Cannes, Toulouse, Rome, L’Aquila and 

Charleroy, each of them contributing 

their technological expertise 

(systems engineering, integration 

and testing, development of electronic 

equipment). 

Moreover, Thales Alenia Space will 

also be in charge of the industrial 

coordination of sub-contractors 

from eleven different countries, including 

important American partners. 

Also, even from this point of 

view, the project Iridium NEXT represents 

a model of international collaboration 

in the space industry, 

confirming stronger synergies between 

the two sides of the Atlantic, 

even on a commercial level. 

72 

An artist’s impression of the Iridium 

constellation. Iridium NEXT is the world’s 

largest satellite constellation, comprising 81 

satellites in low orbit to provide satellite 

mobile communication services for voice and 

data traffic 

73

E N E R G Y 

9/2010 


ANSALDO ENERGIA 

ASIAN SYNERGIES 

ANSALDO ENERGIA HAS ESTAB- 

LISHED A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE 

CHINESE COMPANY SHANGHAI 

ELECTRIC CORPORATION TO SUPPLY 

AN AE 94.2 GAS TURBINE AND AS- 

SOCIATED ELECTRIC GENERATOR 

FOR THE SYLHET POWER PLANT IN 

BANGLADESH 

Ansaldo Energia has concluded an important 

working relationship with the Chinese 

company Shanghai Electric Corporation 

(EPC Division), which, in effect, has already 

become operational, to supply a gas turbine 

controller with a nominal capacity of 150 

MW to be installed at the Sylhet power plant in 

Bangladesh. The order comprises an AE 94.2 gas 

turbine and associated electric generator, together 

with auxiliary systems, which will be assembled 

and operated by the Shanghai Electric 

Corporation under the supervision of Ansaldo 

Energia. For the first two years following delivery 

of the equipment, Ansaldo Energia will provide 

programmed maintenance services and 

the spare parts necessary to maintain the plant 

in perfect operating condition. The end client 

and future operator, Bangladesh Power Development 

Board (BPDB), required extremely tight 

production timescales leading to completion of 

the project by the end of 2011. In addition to successfully 

fending off the highly-qualified competition, 

Ansaldo Energia had to devote considerable 

efforts to the flexible management of 

production flows, in order to bring negotiations 

to a successful conclusion. The project was approved 

and financed by the Bangladeshi government 

as part of a priority programme designed 

to considerably reduce the current gap 

(estimated at around 2,000 MW) between the 

country’s installed power and actual requirement. 

This acquisition, which comes in addition 

to the equipment supplied to the Meghnaghat 

power plant in the 1990s, enables Ansaldo Energia 

to strengthen its presence in the country 

with a view to continuing to play a key role in 

future initiatives. 

ABU DHABI: 

NEW HIGH-TECH 

CENTRE 

At the end of April, the new gas turbine 

repair centre in the Middle East 

was officially launched at the new Industrial 

City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD III), a 

specialist business area created by the 

Abu Dhabi government, in Musaffah. 

The new workshop of Ansaldo Thomassen 

Gulf was inaugurated, with the support 

of Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nayhan, 

by Giuseppe Zampini, CEO of Ansaldo 

Energia and Mohammad Hassan Al 

Qamzi, CEO of ZonesCorp, Abu Dhabi. 

Ansaldo Thomassen Gulf is a local company, 

whose shareholders are Ansaldo 

Thomassen BV, a Dutch subsidiary of 

Ansaldo Energia, and the Saeed Al Mosawe 

Group, an Abu Dhabi-based company. 

Ansaldo Thomassen Gulf has 

brought to the region innovative technology, 

state-of-the art equipment and 

some of the world’s best resources to 

create a centre of excellence for the production 

and repair of gas turbine rotating 

blades and other components. 

Right: Giuseppe Zampini, CEO of Ansaldo Energia, and 

Mohammad Hassan Al Qamzi, CEO of ZonesCorp, 

inaugurate the workshop of Ansaldo Thomassen Gulf. 

Left: AE 94.2 gas turbine 

74 

75

D E F E N C E S Y S T E M S 


MBDA 

THE FUTURE 

AS A 

STRATEGY 

Taking partnership into the 

halls of learning 

NEW SYSTEMS, EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, INVESTMENTS, 

PARTNERSHIPS WITH UNIVERSITIES: MORE THAN EVER, RE- 

SEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ARE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN THE 

EVOLUTION OF MBDA’S BUSINESS 

MBDA’s Internal Research And 

Development (IRAD) organisation 

plays a key role in developing 

the products and technologies that 

represent the company’s future, experimenting 

with new assemblies and subsystems, 

focusing on generating functional 

capabilities and emerging technologies 

and identifying priorities for 

new investment through a continuous 

decision-making process based on the 

market inputs summarised in the company’s 

Integrated Strategic Business Plan 

(ISBP). The international team, which 

draws its members from France, Italy, 

Germany and the UK and is headed up by 

Marcello Pacifici, Group Director Engineering 

& Seekers and Deputy Executive 

Group Director Technical, works within 

an integrated organisational structure, 

ensuring that projects are subject to 

strict technical and financial governance, 

and that performance is measured using 

regular analyses. The Product Evolution 

and Technology Plan (PEATP) is updated 

each year, and gathers together investment 

proposals from the Product Strategy, 

the ISBP and the operating lines to 

improve capabilities and acquire or develop 

technologies using a combined 

top-down and bottom-up approach. 

Once it has been agreed, the PEATP is implemented 

through the Strategic Technology 

Programmes (STPs), which are 

used for long-term planning of projects 

with the aim of increasing system knowledge 

by enhancing the company's ability 

to develop specific products, develop prototype 

assemblies and sub-assemblies, 

acquire the necessary technology for the 

development of demonstrators and prototypes 

and support risk-reduction programmes. 

A full development cycle normally 

takes between three and six years, 

so assessments covering a period of up 

to ten years need to be carried out when 

putting in place a strategy for technology 

investment. The IRAD R&D budget is allocated 

on the basis of a model correlated 

to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL), 

which is a tool for measuring the maturity 

and availability of technologies, in order 

to encourage the development of 

new products through short- and medium-term 

programmes. In 2009, a number 

of important programmes were put 

in place using the technology plan, including 

Ballistic Missile Defence, 

SHORAD air defence, the MPCV (Multi- 

Purpose Combat Vehicle) platform, highly 

mobile armoured vehicles equipped 

with Mistral missiles for classic 

VSHORAD missions, the CAMM (Common 

Anti-air Modular Munition) missile 

co-funded by the UK Ministry of Defence, 

and MARTE, an anti-ship missile with a 

number of different configurations. Particular 

attention was paid to certain key 

sub-systems and technologies, such as 

SEEKAM (a millimetre-wave radar seeker), 

co-funded by the Italian Secretariat 

General of Defence/National Armaments 

Directorate (Segredifesa), Datalink 

systems, the IR sensor for the Scalp Naval 

anti-ship missile, millimetre-wave phased 

array antennas and new nanostructured 

ceramic materials for hypersonic missile 

radomes. In its technology research programmes, 

MBDA collaborates closely 

with its shareholders, Finmeccanica, 

EADS and BEA Systems, with which it has 

signed co-operation agreements. Its involvement 

in MindSh@re in particular 

has helped to foster far-reaching technical 

co-operation with other Finmeccanica 

companies. There is also an ever 

greater need to involve major European 

universities (see box), due to the strong 

trend towards state-of-the-art programmes. 

All of these crucial initiatives 

to tackle future challenges have enabled 

MBDA, in its ongoing engagement with 

the scientific world, to establish and develop 

a network of highly knowledgeable 

technical experts whose experience 

bridges a range of technological fields. 

Through its investments, the IRAD organisation 

has helped MBDA to win major 

development and production contracts 

while minimising technological risks. 

Internal Research 

& Development Funding 

detect 

understand 

apply 

The best Italian universities, including those in 

Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Cassino, 

Naples and many more besides, have signed a 

technical and scientific co-operation agreement 

with MBDA. In France, the company works with 

centres of research and universities such as ISL 

(Institut Saint-Louis), ONERA (the French 

Aerospace Lab), IRSEEM (Institut de Recherche en 

Systèmes Electroniques Embarqués), UTBM 

(Université Technologique de Belfort 

Montbéliard), INERIS (Institut National de 

l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques), CSTL 

(Coopération Scientifique et Technologique pour 

la Lorraine), the National Physics Laboratory and 

Université de Bourgogne. In the UK, partnerships 

have been established with the universities of 

Cranfield, Lancaster, Manchester, London, 

Nottingham and Cambridge. 

validate 

10% IRAD 40% IRAD 50% IRAD 

LONG TERM 

Radical concepts 

Emerging technologies 

Future products 5% 

Emerging technology 5% 

Budget distribution 

MEDIUM TERM 

Evolving products 

Developing technologies 


Functional capability 10% 

deploy 

SHORT TERM 

Demonstrating products 

Exploiting technologies 

Design integration 


Functional capability 10% 

TRL1 Technology Readiness Level TRL7 

76 77

T R A N S P O R T A T I O N 


ANSALDOBREDA 

SAINT PETERSBURG: 

INNOVATION ON RAILS 

ANSALDOBREDA’S LIGHT RAIL TRANSPORT SYSTEMS, 

WHICH ACCORDING TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES CAN BE 

USED AS AN OVERGROUND LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM OR SIMPLY 

AS A TRAM, ARE PLAYING THEIR PART IN THE DECISION TO 

REJUVENATE THE CITY’S TRAM NETWORK USING THE LAT- 

EST SOLUTIONS, AND COULD PROVE TO BE OF INTEREST 

FOR OTHER CITIES IN THE REST OF RUSSIA 

Modern Light Rail Transit 

(LRT) systems enjoy huge 

success in all the cities 

where they have been introduced. 

LRT systems boast a number of 

competitive advantages, including 

cost of construction, the timescales 

for implementation, passenger 

comfort and commercial speeds approaching 

those of a metro system. 

The vehicles run on dedicated 

tracks, with exclusive use where 

possible, and are given precedence 

at traffic lights. Saint Petersburg has 

an extensive public transport network 

and up until 1995 it was the 

city with the largest tram network 

in the world. The tram service then 

underwent a period of slow decline 

due to a lack of investment. However, 

the potential for tram transport 

remains high: the platforms have 

not yet been removed, as has happened 

elsewhere, so the city has decided 

to buck the trend and rejuvenate 

its urban rail transport using 

comfortable, modern solutions. The 

pilot project for this programme 

could potentially be the construction 

of a fast link between the city 

centre and Pulkovo Airport, which 

will unveil an ultra-modern new terminal 

in 2012: a light rail link could 

be created by modernising part of 

the existing infrastructure and 

adding a new section to the line. The 

positive response of the city’s population 

to this project will provide the 

momentum for a plan to rescue 

Saint Petersburg’s wealth of infrastructure 

and hence to create an 

overground light rail network that 

meets the needs of today’s citizens. 

This virtuous cycle has all the right 

qualities to be adopted by other 

Russian cities, starting with Moscow, 

which for a variety of reasons have 

ended up in a similar position to 

Saint Petersburg. AnsaldoBreda’s 

SIRIO vehicle has been chosen by a 

number of Italian and European 

cities and is ideally suited to provide 

a high-quality service either as part 

of a tram system or in a light rail 

network, depending on the infrastructure 

requirements. The SIRIO 

vehicles in use in Milan and Naples 

had to comply with the demanding 

specifications of the existing network, 

such as axle load and tight 

curves. In Milan, Gothenburg and 

Athens, SIRIO handles both the classic 

tram applications in the city centre 

and the light rail applications, 

characterised by very consistent 

speeds, in the areas connecting the 

town centre to the city’s suburbs. In 

Bergamo in Italy and Kayseri in 

Turkey, SIRIO clearly operates as a 

light rail system, as it runs on a track 

reserved for that purpose. In Kayseri, 

two trains are also coupled together 

to double the transport capacity. 

During the frequent and fruitful 

contact between Italian institutions, 

Finmeccanica, the Russian authorities 

and Russian companies, 

AnsaldoBreda was given the opportunity 

to showcase its experience, 

and the features of the SIRIO vehicle 

caught the interest of the city of 

Saint Petersburg. The principles of 

an agreement have since been put 

in place that would enable Ansaldo- 

Breda to support the government's 

plans with its experience and technology, 

while also fully involving the 

local rail industry in Saint Petersburg 

and the company Vagonmash 

– Petersburg Tram Mechanical Factory 

(part of the Dedal Group), 

which over the years has built nearly 

all of the trams operating in Saint 

Petersburg and which will work in 

partnership with AnsaldoBreda to 

implement the programme. A version 

of SIRIO will naturally have to 

be ‘made to measure’ to meet the 

infrastructure requirements and the 

specifications for use in Saint Petersburg 

and Russia: the rail gauge 

(1,524 mm), operating temperatures, 

axle load, line curvature and many 

other specifications must be given 

due consideration during the development 

of the project, which could 

find its first tantalising expression 

in the rapid rail link between the 

city and the airport. 

Left: SIRIO tram in Gothenburg. 

Above, from top: SIRIO in Milan and Bergamo. 

Facing page: Palace Square, Saint Petersburg 

78 

79


11/2009 9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE 

ANSALDOBREDA 

LIGHT METRO: 

CERTIFIED 

QUALITY 

THE BRESCIA AUTOMATED LIGHT METRO – IMPLEMENTED 

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF ANSALDOBREDA AND 

ANSALDO STS, WHICH BUILT THE TRAINS AND THE LINE RE- 

SPECTIVELY – IS THE FIRST SYSTEM IN THE GLOBAL RAIL AND 

TRAM TRANSPORT SECTOR TO OBTAIN CERTIFICATION OF ITS 

ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION 

Care for the environment is at 

the forefront of AnsaldoBreda’s 

industrial development strategies, 

as confirmed by the ISO 14001 

certification obtained for all its plants. 

The company has adopted Life Cycle 

Assessment (LCA), a methodology for 

evaluating the effects of a product's 

interaction with the environment over 

its entire life, which helps it to understand 

the direct and indirect consequences 

caused and thus identify opportunities 

for improvement. The resulting 

reduction in the product’s environmental 

impact can be announced 

via the type-III Environmental 

Product Declaration (EPD), governed 

by ISO 14025 regulations. The 

Environmental Product Declaration of 

Brescia’s automated light metro system, 

MetroBus, is the first ever in the 

rail and tram transport sector to obtain 

external certification, based on 

the Product Category Rules (PCRs) relating 

to UNIFE, the European association 

for the railway supply industry. 

The first step along the route that led 

to certification of the Brescia 

MetroBus’ Environmental Product 

viaduct 

ground 

subsurface 

deep-level 

CO2 equivalents greenhouse gas emission* 

2 

1.5 

1 

0.5 

0 

0.026 0.018 

Upstream 

Core 

1.74 

7.75E-05 

Use phase End of life 

Downstream 

1.784 

Total 

* 1 passenger 

transport for 

100 km 

metro yard 

Declaration was to define, with the 

agreement of the sector’s largest players, 

the contents of the PCRs. The PCRs 

contain all the main rules for the issue 

of the EPD and were required to be approved 

in advance by the International 

EPD Consortium (IEC). The next 

stage after the definition and approval 

of the contents of the PCRs, which 

were drafted following numerous 

meetings, was the creation of the Environmental 

Product Declaration, followed 

by its certification. Once all the 

main rules were defined in the form of 

the PCRs, activities to create and then 

certify the EPD were launched. We 

were the first among our competitors, 

including Bombardier, which was 

working towards the issue of a similar 

EPD, to receive the approval of RINA. 

Subsequently, the International EPD 

Consortium approved the Environmental 

Product Declaration created 

for Brescia’s MetroBus. Also as part of 

the EPD, the IEC issued the Climate 

Declaration, which shows the greenhouse 

gas emissions of the product 

covered by the EPD, expressed as CO2 

equivalent (see chart, left). This is 

based on the verified results obtained 

by the LCA process, which was carried 

out as the basis of the EPD. By way of 

example, the table on the left shows 

the results obtained in terms of the 

amount of recycling and recovery 

achieved by the Brescia MetroBus, another 

significant aspect of a product’s 

environmental impact, and further 

proof that care for the environment 

goes hand-in-hand with AnsaldoBreda’s 

development. 

These pages: the Brescia automated light 

metro and its route 

80 

81



ANSALDO STS 

A SIGNAL 

OF EXCELLENCE 

THE TECHNOLOGICAL UPGRADE OF THE GENOA RAIL NET- 

WORK WILL MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO SEPARATE THE FLOWS 

OF LONG-DISTANCE PASSENGER TRAFFIC AND GOODS 

FROM REGIONAL AND URBAN TRAFFIC, AND COULD OF- 

FER A MODEL FOR THE FAR-REACHING REDEVELOPMENT 

OF THE ITALIAN RAIL NETWORK 

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana has 

awarded Ansaldo STS the contract 

to carry out the technological 

upgrade of the Genoa rail 

network, worth a total of EUR 43.7 

million. This is a particularly important 

project because it concerns innovative 

safety and signalling equipment 

based upon the multi-station 

computer-based interlocking system 

(ACC) and telecommunications, and 

will enhance the rail network infrastructure 

on the Voltri to Brignole line. 

This section forms a crucial part 

of the Ventimiglia-Genoa-Novara- 

Milan (Sempione) rail axis, and is one 

of the rail systems that makes up the 

Tirrenico-Northern Europe multi-modal 

corridor. The work will achieve 

standards of technological excellence 

on a line deemed to be one of the 

most important in the country, and it 

will bring major benefits for passengers 

by making it possible to separate 

the flows of long-distance passenger 

traffic and goods from regional 

and urban traffic. In order to facilitate 

long-distance passenger traffic 

and flows of goods, a link will be built 

between the port of Genova Voltri, 

the Italian/French coastal line and 

the northern/eastern lines comprising 

a high-spec line ready to connect 

in the future with the third Giovi 

Pass. In order to promote urban 

and regional traffic, the Genova Voltri-Genova 

Brignole line will be expanded 

to four or six tracks, with two 

dedicated tracks for urban and regional 

trains, while the Giovi line will also 

be used exclusively for this type of 

traffic. Finally, the work to improve 

passenger comfort will also include 

the reorganisation of the systems at 

the Genova Voltri, Sampierdarena 

and Brignole stations, the improvement 

of services in the Genova Terralba 

area and interchange with the Genoa 

Metro. In terms of technology, 

the work being carried out is particularly 

innovative and unique in its 

field, since this is Ansaldo STS’s first 

project to involve the construction of 

a multi-station ACC system on conventional 

lines in Italy, and the first 

ever project within Italy where multistation 

ACC will be integrated with 

the Centralised Traffic Control (CTC) 

system, again on conventional lines, 

following on from a similar project by 

Integration in Libya 

Through the consortium comprising 

Ansaldo STS and SELEX Communications, 

Finmeccanica has signed an agreement 

with Zarubezhstroytechnology, a subsidiary 

of the Russian rail operator JSC RZD, to 

supply signalling, automation, 

telecommunications, power supply, security 

and ticketing technology for the Sirth- 

Bengasi line in Libya. 81.8% of the order 

pertains to Ansaldo STS, as leader of the 

consortium, and the remainder to SELEX 

Communications. Ansaldo STS will 

implement the signalling and on-board 

train security technology on the railway line 

and in the stations along the stretch of line, 

including the installation of the 

interoperable system known as ERTMS and 

station control equipment, known as 

interlocking. SELEX Communications, 

however, will build the telecommunications 

systems from the design phase through to 

maintenance. This new success is yet 

another example of the integration of 

expertise between Group companies and 

allows Finmeccanica to strengthen its 

presence in this important country. 

Ansaldo STS on the high-speed lines 

from Milan to Bologna and from Bologna 

to Florence. The multi-station 

computer-based interlocking system 

is built around a central multi-station 

operations room (PCM), which allows 

an area containing service rooms 

(PdS) and sections of track to be monitored 

and controlled in safety via a 

centralised interface. Since the Genoa 

network is particularly complex, 

the system architecture will eventually 

allow the PCM to control different 

geographical areas (corresponding 

to important stations within 

the network – Voltri, Sampierdarena 

and Brignole – where there will be 

back-up logic units), each of which is 

itself a local multi-station ACC. This 

type of work showcases Ansaldo ST- 

S’s technological excellence and 

could provide the model for initiating 

a far-reaching redevelopment of the 

Italian rail network. The construction 

of the integrated control system located 

at the PCM at Genova Teglia represents 

a real innovation: the system 

connects to the PCM of the 

multi-station ACC, to which it send 

commands and from which it receives 

information relating to the PdS 

and sections of track, as well as connecting 

to the CTC system, from which 

it receives traffic management 

commands and to which it sends 

information that allows the CTC system 

to manage the traffic. 

Top and facing page: 

ACC system control centre – Computer-based 

central interlocking system 

82 

83


FATA 

IN QATAR AMONG 

THE KEY PLAYERS 

FATA PLAYED AN ACTIVE ROLE IN IMPLEMENTING THE QATALUM 

PLANT FOR ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION. WITH A CAPACITY OF 

585,000 TONNES A YEAR, QATALUM HAS THE LARGEST FOUNDRY 

IN THE WORLD AND HAS PLANS FOR FURTHER EXPANSION 

The Qatalum plant was inaugurated 

recently in Mesaieed, Qatar. The 

tape was cut by Sheikh Hamad bin 

Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar and Haakon, the 

Crown Prince of Norway. Qatalum is an 

aluminium smelter worth a total of USD 

5.7 billion; its inauguration marks the 

start of a new chapter in Qatar’s economic 

diversification programme, a key 

component of Qatar’s National Vision 

2030. The plant was built by a number of 

international engineering, procurement 

and construction (EPC) contractors including 

FATA. In 1970 Qatar, a country rich 

in natural resources, embarked on a 

process to increase its industrial capacity, 

diversifying its production of goods such 

as fertilisers, petrochemical, steel and 

now aluminium, components and derivatives. 

A key role in this development was 

played by Qatar Petroleum, which is partner 

in Qatalum with Norway’s Norsk Hydro, 

the third largest integrated aluminium 

company worldwide. The Qatalum 

smelter can produce 585,000 tonnes of 

primary aluminium a year and has plans 

for a second phase of expansion of the 

plant, which will lead to a doubling of 

productive capacity in the future. FATA 

has actively contributed to the implementation 

of the Qatalum project as 

contractor for the cast house and anode 

baking plant: the total value of the supply 

order for FATA is over USD 500 million. 

The company hopes, on the back of the 

good results achieved, to be able to take 

part in the second expansion phase of 

the smelter. Qatalum is today the largest 

foundry in the world, developed with cutting-edge 

technology capable of producing 

cast aluminium alloys such as bars 

and extrusion billets, all of which generates 

high added value. Thanks to an efficient 

resource management system in 

the facility, FATA has exceeded the stringent 

safety at work objectives set by 

Norsk Hydro, proving itself to be the best 

of the EPC contractors present on site 

and delivering performance in line with 

the best international experience. Indeed, 

there were no significant accidents 

at work over the 13 million working hours 

necessary to build the plant. The 

Qatalum project is strategically important 

in Qatar’s history and represents a 

further step forward for one of the 

fastest growing economies in the world. 

Doha, the capital city of Qatar. 

Left: Prince Haakon of Norway and the 

Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, 

during the inauguration ceremony of Qatalum. 

Right: the Qatalum cast house 

84 85

P E O P L E 


INITIAL RESULTS: THE 

DESIRE TO TAKE PART 

THE BUSINESS CULTURE PROJECT 2010, THE GROUP’S THIRD EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND BUSI- 

NESS CULTURE SURVEY, WAS PROMOTED WITH THE SLOGAN BE A PART OF IT. AROUND 38,000 EM- 

PLOYEES IN 27 COUNTRIES TOOK PART. A RESULT THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT OUR PEOPLE’S PRIDE IN 

BEING PART OF A LARGE GROUP AND THEIR DESIRE TO CONTRIBUTE TO ITS ONGOING GROWTH. THE 

SURVEY ALSO REVEALS A HOST OF USEFUL SUGGESTIONS FOR THE GROUP’S FUTURE DIRECTION 

As the communication campaign 

said, Be a part of it. And some 

38,000 employees from 27 different 

countries chose to respond. An overwhelming 

response rate, then, for Finmeccanica’s 

third employee satisfaction 

and business culture survey, carried out in 

June and July by means of a questionnaire 

published on the Group’s intranet in 

11 languages. More than one out of every 

two employees in the Group from Italy, 

the US and the UK to India, France, Australia, 

China, Brazil and all the other countries 

in which Finmeccanica is present, 

chose to take advantage of this opportunity 

to express their opinion on their work 

and life in the company. This produced a 

completely representative sample of the 

Finmeccanica identity (i.e. 56% of the total 

population). By making the gesture of 

spending just 15 minutes on completing 

the questionnaire, 38,000 employees decided 

to ‘make a difference’ and provide a 

significant contribution to their company 

and to the Group. This included identifying 

potential areas for improvement in 

the organisation and, of course, the areas 

where the best results had been achieved. 

Many also said that it was an opportunity 

to reflect and examine themselves, and to 

go beyond the daily minutiae of work and 

try to ‘understand’ Finmeccanica as a 

whole. For those without computers, 

some Group companies also provided 

‘survey rooms’ or areas (sometimes 

makeshift, but clearly dedicated for the 

purpose) where people could fill in the 

questionnaire, as a sign of the willingness 

of each company to really listen to all 

those who work there every day. The HR 

Team in each Group company pulled out 

all the stops to promote the initiative and 

involve as many employees as possible, 

and thus obtain reliable data that is representative 

of the Finmeccanica Group as 

a whole. Now it is time to look at the results 

in depth. The preliminary results are 

at this very moment being made available 

on the Group’s intranet site, company 

intranets and notice boards. 

So, what do our colleagues think? How 

much do they identify with Finmeccanica’s 

objectives and values? What is the 

perception of the organisational changes 

under way? Do our companies know each 

other and work together? What are rela- 

Response rate – Top 5 company sites 

FIRST PLACE = 100% 

DRS Technologies: PESG, C3&A, Tactical and RSTA Group Staff (USA) 

Elsag Datamat: Elsag North America (USA) 

Telespazio: Telespazio Brazil and Argentina 

SECOND PLACE = 94% 

SELEX Communications: Elettra Communications S.A. (Romania) 

THIRD PLACE = 92% 

AnsaldoBreda: Carini, Palermo (Italy) 

FOURTH PLACE = 89% 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati: SELEX SI Inc. (USA) 

FIFTH PLACE = 88% 

Alenia Aeronautica: Grottaglie, Taranto (Italy) 

Trend over the three years of the initiative 

2006 2008 2010 

Comparison basis 51,332 56,596 71,782(*) 

Countries 10 16 27 

Languages 7 9 11 

Sites 210 272 330 

Questionnaires received 19,261 28,925 37,734 

Response rate 43% 51% 56% 

The increase in the response rate provides an early indication that the Finmeccanica Group ‘team 

spirit’ is becoming more firmly entrenched 

(*) The Polish company, PZL, which 

was recently acquired by 

AgustaWestland, was included in the 

survey population (4,281 employees 

on the date the survey was launched), 

but the rest of the statistical analysis 

was performed without including this 

figure as it will be involved 

in the November 2010 initiative 

(the figures will be integrated later) 

86 87

P E O P L E 


(*)Elsag Datamat’s response 

rate is based on the company 

headcount at the date the survey 

was launched (June 2010). 

On 1 July 2010, around 700 

employees were transferred 

to other Group companies 

as part of the reorganisation of 

activities in the defence electronics 

and security sector 

Response rates of the various Group companies 

Finmeccanica Group average: 56% 

AgustaWestland 

Alenia Aermacchi 

Ansaldo STS 

DRS Technologies 

Elsag Datamat 

45% 

42%* 

Alenia Aeronautica 

Finmeccanica Group Services - Finmeccanica Group Real Estate 

FATA 

48% 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati 

BredaMenarinibus 

50% 

Oto Melara 

SELEX Communications 

SELEX Galileo 

SELEX Service Management 

Telespazio 

WASS 

57% 

53% 

59% 

Ansaldo Energia 63% 

52% 

53% 

53% 

59% 

60% 

Seicos 67% 

63% 

64% 

64% 

AnsaldoBreda 

Superjet International 

76% 

79% 


78% 

87% 

tionships with line managers like? Is attention 

paid to merit and developing talented 

young people? These are just some 

of the questions to which an analysis of 

the data may provide answers. As the survey 

is now in its third year, we can check 

the effectiveness of what we have done 

so far: we will have analysis of trends performed 

internally (2006-2010) as well as 

external benchmarks for the cultural indicators 

that are most closely correlated 

with corporate performance. A thorough 

analysis of the opinions expressed will allow 

us to implement improvement meas- 

ures both throughout the Group and in 

individual operating companies, aimed at 

specifically addressing the problem areas 

that emerged from this survey. These will 

include measures agreed with senior 

management to be defined, implemented 

and monitored across the Group according 

to the same procedures and 

timescales in each company. Projects that 

arise spontaneously or from the specific 

circumstances at individual sites will also 

be encouraged, monitored and assessed 

internally in each company and then disseminated 

across the Group. Our aim, 

even more than before, is to make the improvement 

process inclusive, concrete 

and recognisable across the Group. It is a 

process in which everyone can get involved 

and become agents of change. A 

process that produces tangible results. A 

unanimous, tangible response borne of a 

common identity. 

88 89

P E O P L E 


“DEAR CHAIRMAN...” 

SOMETIMES THEY WRITE DIRECTLY TO PIER 

FRANCESCO GUARGUAGLINI, ALTHOUGH 

MORE OFTEN THEY USE FORUMS OR BLOGS. 

IN EITHER CASE, THEY ARE FUELLING THE 

GREAT EXCHANGE OF IDEAS THAT HELPS TO 

DEFINE NOT ONLY WHAT FINMECCANICA 

WILL BE IN THE FUTURE, BUT ALSO WHAT IT 

IS NOW. THESE ARE THE YOUNG GRADU- 

ATES TAKING PART IN FLIP, THE FINMECCA- 

NICA LEARNING INDUCTION PROGRAMME: 

BENEFICIARIES OF AND PARTICIPANTS IN A 

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT MODEL 

THAT FOCUSES ON VALUING DIVERSITY 

Many of the e-mails sent to 

Pier Francesco Guarguaglini 

in recent months by the 

young people involved in FLIP start 

with the words “Dear Chairman…” 

They almost always continue by 

thanking him for giving them the opportunity 

to have this direct contact, 

even if it is mediated by technology, 

making them proud to be part of a 

community where dialogue is widespread 

and unfiltered. These young 

FLIP participants form a ‘digital tribe’ 

where they learn and debate: among 

themselves, with their managers, 

with their mentors – their points of 

contact within the companies – and 

even with ‘their’ chairman. But what 

are they talking about? What are the 

expectations and curiosities of these 

young new recruits? What values are 

held by Finmeccanica’s ‘Generation 

Y’? An initial analysis of the contributions 

sent to the chairman, posted on 

forums or written in FLIP blogs reveals 

that Finmeccanica’s Generation Y was 

born ‘without borders’ (geographical, 

cultural and social), upholds certain 

key values (meritocracy, protecting 

the environment, promoting team 

spirit and valuing people), has a 

strong ethical identity and uses a direct 

and informal style of communication. 

Pietro Marigliani at SELEX 

Galileo says that young people are 

looking for a “global flavour” to their 

working experience. And, much as 

happens in the world of Facebook, 

they look to operate through a “net of 

connections between the different 

companies of the Group” to build a 

“professional network” with colleagues 

throughout the world (Tuan 

Nguyen at Ansaldo STS USA), break 

through the confines of “my plant” 

(Alessio Frigerio, AgustaWestland) 

and feel “part of a unique big company” 

(Fabio Motta, AgustaWestland). 

This is a green generation that looks 

at the future from an environmental 

perspective and has a preference for 

renewable energy sources. “One project 

that looks to the future relates to 

generating thermodynamic solar energy 

using molten salts (…). The development 

of this technology would offer 

the possibility of producing clean 

energy from the sun (…), providing a 

very important medium of exchange 

in relation to other countries; think 

above all of the Middle East and 

Africa, where this is highly applicable,” 

says Francesco Cammarata at 

Alenia Aermacchi. Or again: “One idea 

would be to invest in building photovoltaic 

plants in all the Group’s companies,” 

suggests Francesco Danilo 

De Vita at AnsaldoBreda. They talk 

about company life, their relations 

with the boss, the difficulties of joining 

complex, hierarchical organisations, 

their desire to strike the right 

work/life balance, but also about 

commitment, the need to fulfil oneself, 

to understand and improve, and 

the constant quest to share ideas 

with those who “know more than 

they do”. “We need experts that we 

can look up to, from whom we can 

learn and to whom we can make suggestions: 

motivation comes from other 

people, just doing it for yourself is 

neither sufficient nor satisfying!” says 

Elisabetta Coccia at Alenia Aeronautica. 

There is a strong drive to learn and 

a focus on the quality of relationships 

with colleagues: “I was able to feel 

happy during this year and a half at 

the company thanks to the friendly 

work environment and the type of 

work that I am doing. I enjoy learning 

and the opportunities to learn 

are infinite,” writes Samuele Novi at 

SELEX Galileo. According to Jeremy 

Kaltenbach at Ansaldo STS USA, the 

key message from the forum is “be 

curious”. There is also great enthusiasm 

for learning new things: “I look 

forward to learning more about Finmeccanica 

and developing further as 

a professional,” states Erica Schneider, 

Alenia North America. 

And the Chairman? He reads, listens 

and interprets, he deals with them 

personally and does not hesitate to 

engage in discussion, sitting down 

next to them at a virtual table, asking 

them to be patient and focused, tenacious 

and brave. He takes their effervescence 

and freshness as a starting 

point to encourage them to be proactive 

within their respective companies. 

There is no doubt about the importance 

of the generational issue at 

Finmeccanica: the Group has four 

generations working side by side simultaneously. 

The polarisation of the 

workforce is particularly strong in the 

youngest age group, those under 35 

(30%), and the experts aged around 

50 (33%). This clearly demonstrates 

the necessity and the challenge of 

creating a ‘system’ that capitalises 

on the attitudes of the different generations 

and facilitates interaction 

and exchange between these diverse, 

separate worlds. This is why 

the central Human Resources division 

has set up a Training and Development 

Model that broadens and 

interconnects the intelligence of all 

those working in the operating companies 

around the world, taking into 

account each individual’s values, 

skills and expectations. The model 

focuses on valuing differences, not 

just those between generations, but 

also differences of roles, seniority, expertise 

and background, generating 

an extremely valuable exchange of 

ideas. This is based on the conviction 

that these young recruits, who have 

exploration and internationalism in 

their genes, are not just the Group’s 

future management class, but represent 

a key strategic resource in the 

here and now. 

Towards full 

‘Finmeccanica 

citizenship’ 

FLIP is the international training 

programme for all newly-recruited young 

graduates in the Group’s companies. 

The current edition, which started in 

October 2009 and will conclude with a 

final conference in November, involves 

nearly 300 young people from the US, UK, 

Italy and France. An intensive year for the 

young participants, spent on a virtual 

campus as they discover their corporate 

and Group identity in order to acquire full 

‘Finmeccanica citizenship’. 

90 91

P E O P L E 


NEW 

PROFESSIONALS 

IN THE 

MAKING 

6,000 CANDIDATES FROM 140 COUNTRIES APPLIED TO 

TAKE PART IN FHINK, FINMECCANICA’S MASTER’S PRO- 

GRAMME IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENGINEERING. 

ONLY 26 MADE IT TO THE FINAL PHASE OF A TRAINING 

PROGRAMME CREATED TO NURTURE TALENTED YOUNG 

PEOPLE AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE ONGOING DEVELOP- 

MENT OF THE GROUP 

this master’s programme 

because I want to 

“Ichose 

work for a large manufacturing 

group in my own country” said a 

new Italian graduate in aerospace 

engineering at Southampton University 

in the UK. A young Brazilian telecoms 

engineer commented, “this 

master’s course is exactly what I was 

looking for and will enable me to 

combine business skills with my 

technical background, immersed in a 

microcosm that involves working 

alongside colleagues from many different 

countries”. Read on for some of 

the reasons that led over 6,000 talented 

young people from more than 

140 countries to apply for a place in 

the fifth year of Finmeccanica’s 

FHINK master’s course in International 

Business Engineering. The requirements 

for admission to the selection 

procedure are an engineering 

or economics background, international 

experience and a high degree 

of motivation. The procedure involves 

a battery of assessments, individual 

interviews and evaluations by a committee 

of representatives from Finmeccanica, 

operating companies and 

the academic world that candidates 

must pass with flying colours. Only 

70 young people were fortunate 

enough to reach the final phase and 

meet the committee, which then 

chose the top 26 to make up the new 

class. The route marked out for the 

students is challenging and demanding: 

a month of learning the fundamentals 

of strategy, accounting, and 

finance and industrial marketing, followed 

by courses on people management 

and organisation, project management, 

and technology and innovation 

management, totalling some 

1,000 classroom hours. The course is 

delivered by lecturers from major Italian 

and foreign academic institutions 

alternating with trainers and managers 

from the company to ensure 

that the material learned is put into 

the operational context of the young 

students. At the end of the course, 

students take up a four-month internship 

with the company. All this 

makes it an opportunity for growth 

but also a big challenge for the young 

people and for the Group. A Group 

that has chosen to believe in a new 

generation, which has a particular aptitude 

for operating in a multicultural 

environment and which is prepared 

to put all its energy into creating a 

new professional class that can contribute 

effectively, right from the outset, 

to its ongoing development. 

The countries of origin 

of the 26 participants 

in the fifth FHINK 

master’s programme 

Brazil 2 

China 1 

India 2 

Italy 11 

Nigeria 1 

Poland 1 

Russia 2 

Spain 2 

South Africa 1 

Turkey 1 

United Kingdom 1 

United States 1 

92 93

E V E N T S 


VALUING 

EXPERIENCE 

DEEP WITHIN THE PRATICA DI MARE AIR FORCE BASE, THE SIXTH LONG-SERVING EM- 

PLOYEES’ AWARDS CEREMONY IS A CELEBRATION OF EXPERIENCE, WHICH ONCE 

AGAIN PUTS EMPLOYEES IN THE SPOTLIGHT. A DOUBLE EVENT WAS HELD ON 29 AND 

30 MAY TO HONOUR THE MAESTRI DEL LAVORO AND LONG-SERVING STAFF WHO 

HAVE COMPLETED 35, 40 AND 45 YEARS OF SERVICE IN GROUP COMPANIES 

Oscar Wilde said that every experience is of value, and 

his words were the perfect way of opening an event 

dedicated to Finmeccanica’s long-serving employees 

and Maestri del Lavoro, which, year after year, reiterates the 

central importance that experience has for the Group and 

honours the people whose loyalty and hard work are of such 

value to Finmeccanica and who themselves constitute its 

beating heart. Lazio, the region hosting this year’s awards 

ceremony for long-serving employees, has always been a 

crossroads for trade, a land rich in history in which Finmeccanica 

concentrates its high-quality production, with centres 

of excellence in technology and research as well as the highest 

concentration of the Group’s employees, with almost 

10,000 staff in the region. The evocative backdrop to this 

year’s ceremony was Mario De Bernardi airport at Pratica di 

Mare, one of Italy’s most important military air bases and 

the home of the Italian Air Force’s Flight Test Unit. The event 

started with a splendid dinner hosted by Paolo Bonolis and 

the sparkling Caterina Balivo, during which the concept of 

experience was celebrated in all its forms. It fell to the base’s 

commandant, Air General Gilberto Maurizi, to do the honours 

of the house. This year, even more than in previous 

years, the focus was on the ‘human factor’ as a contributor to 

success. And who better to bear witness to this than Chairman 

and CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, who has strongly 

Above: Paolo Bonolis and Pier Francesco Guarguaglini. 

Top: an aerial display by the Frecce Tricolori. 

Facing page: a moment during the awards ceremony 

94 

95

E V E N T IS 


The great challenge 

A number of brave British and Italian employees took on 

the challenge of cycling some 2,000 kilometres from Luton 

to Rome to raise EUR 24,000 for the British Army’s 

Combined Services Disabled Ski Team. Teamed with three 

disabled soldiers, the cyclists set off from the SELEX Galileo 

site in Luton on 15 May, completing over 150 km a day over 

two weeks, come rain or shine. Special bicycles enabled 

Captain Martin Hewitt of the Parachute Regiment, 

Sergeant Mick Brennan of the Royal Signals Regiment and 

the Marine Pete Dunning of the Royal Marines, all of whom 

had been wounded in Iraq or in Afghanistan, to take part. 

On arrival in Rome, the cyclists were given a heroes’ 

welcome at the awards ceremony for long-serving 

Finmeccanica employees and were greeted by the 

company’s Chairman and CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini. 

“This has been a formidable challenge and one that was 

worth doing, as it is about helping the rehabilitation of 

these soldiers. The funds raised will be used to help them 

train and prepare for the 2012 Winter Paralympic Games,” 

said Steve Rose, one of the cyclists. David Claridge, the 

promoter of the event and SELEX Galileo’s Vice-President 

for Enterprise Procurement, said: “The great determination 

and willingness shown by all the cyclists and their support 

team have been extraordinary. We congratulate them on 

their commitment to raising funds in this way to help 

disabled servicemen and servicewomen compete as skiers 

at the highest international levels.” 

affirmed his belief in the value of experience 

within the Group. Paolo Bonolis addressed 

him not just as a manager, but also 

on a personal level, presenting an array 

of images depicting his career within the 

Group in an emotional journey through 

memories and experiences, the ability to 

look at the present and to think of the future. 

For the presentation of the awards to 

the Maestri del Lavoro and long-serving 

employees with over 45 years of professional 

experience, who were the real stars 

of the evening, Finmeccanica managers 

were joined on stage by the CEOs of the 

individual Group companies and assisted 

by the lovely Teresa D’Alessandro. Experience 

was celebrated not only as one of the 

Group’s values, but also by personal testimonies, 

such as that of Lieutenant Colonel 

Marco Lant, commander of the Frecce Tricolori 

aerobatics team, which this year is 

itself celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. 

The whole event was accompanied by 

music, from the welcome arrival on the 

stage of the bagpipes of the Royal Scots 

Association Pipe Band to the songs of Paolo 

Belli and his band, whose lightness of 

touch brought delight to the evening. The 

celebration continued on the following 

day, which saw the presentation of awards 

to employees with 35 and 40 years of service 

to the Group, with a procession of all 

the award-winners onto the stage, 

grouped by their companies. With the Pipe 

Band’s Scottish melodies and music by the 

band of the Military Aeronautics Schools 

of the Third Air Region playing in the background, 

the guests were able to admire a 

static display of some of the products that 

best represent the Group, typifying the 

evolution of aviation technology and the 

companies’ undiminished capacity for innovation. 

The morning was topped and 

tailed by the air acrobatics of the Frecce Tricolori, 

who scrawled their signature in the 

skies over Pratica di Mare, after fly-pasts by 

an Aermacchi M-346, a C-27J and a Eurofighter. 

The various products on display 

included a historic AN/TPS-1e radar antenna, 

made by Selenia, now SELEX Sistemi Integrati, 

a Macchi M.C.202 Folgore and a restored 

example of the Italian-built Ro.37 

biplane from the Thirties, which had been 

thought lost for over half a century but 

had been found north-east of Kabul in 

2006 by members of the Italian military 

contingent serving in Afghanistan. The aircraft, 

restored by the Italian Air Force and 

Finmeccanica, is one of sixteen sold to the 

Afghan air force in 1937 for use in strategic 

reconnaissance and in combat. A fascinating 

story that speaks of experience present 

and past, experience celebrated yet 

again this year as a value for the present, 

but above all as the key to the future. 

These pages: a few moments during the celebrations 

of the sixth long-serving employees ceremony 

96 97

E V E N T S 


FINMECCANICA 

FOOTBALL: 

A WORLD 

TOURNAMENT 

IN THE SAME YEAR AS THE WORLD CUP, THE GROUP’S TRADITIO- 

NAL FOOTBALL EVENT GOES BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF EURO- 

PE TO INCLUDE THE UNITED STATES AS A PARTICIPANT FOR THE 

FIRST TIME. LOMBARDY WINS, BEATING PIEDMONT IN THE FINAL 

AT FARNBOROUGH; ENGLAND COMES IN THIRD 

It was not the World Cup in South 

Africa that rounded off the 2009- 

2010 football season, but rather 

Lombardy’s victory in the final of the 

fifth Finmeccanica football tournament. 

For, on Saturday 17 July, the 

beautiful field at Farnborough Football 

Club in England welcomed players 

and supporters from the four 

teams that had qualified for the semi-finals 

and finals. England from 

Group D, Lazio (and Abruzzo) from 

Group A, Lombardy (with Veneto and 

Friuli-Venezia Giulia) from Group B, 

and Piedmont from Group C, were 

the teams from the original twelve 

that participated in the tournament 

that managed to fight their way 

through to face the challenge of the 

semi-finals, in which Piedmont beat 

England and Lombardy saw off Lazio. 

Lombardy then went on to beat 

Piedmont 2-1 in the final. The selection 

process had started back in 

March, when Seventies champions 

Mauro Bellugi, Beppe Savoldi, Romeo 

Benetti, Mario Corso and Pietro 

Anastasi had the opportunity to observe 

the performance on the pitch 

of the aspiring players, all from various 

companies in the same region, 

who formed the teams. The teams 

were Lazio (and Abruzzo), the South 

(Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily), Tuscany 

(and Emilia-Romagna), Campania, 

Lombardy (with Veneto and Friuli- 

Venezia Giulia), Apulia, France, Liguria, 

Piedmont, England, Scotland and, for 

the first time since the tournament 

began, the United States. Lombardy, 

trained by Beppe Savoldi, had first to 

beat Campania (3-1), the current 

holders of the title, and then Apulia 

(2-1). The game against Piedmont 

was evenly matched: despite going 

two goals down, Piedmont were not 

deterred and caught up by one goal 

in the second half. Their grit and determination 

were not enough, however, 

to keep Lombardy from winning 

this fifth tournament and receiving 

the coveted cup from Finmeccanica’s 

Chairman and CEO Pier Francesco 

Guarguaglini. Third place went to 

England, which beat Lazio 2:1, to the 

great joy of the home fans on this 

sunny English afternoon. For the 

third time, this year again saw the 

match between two Finmeccanica 

United squads, divided into the reds 

and the blues (final score 1-1), made 

up of representatives from all the 

teams taking part in the tournament. 

United only by the sporting 

spirit, but not having trained together, 

the players showed themselves to 

be champions in team-building. 

Great competitiveness, combined 

with plenty of conviviality were then, 

as ever, the key elements in the 

match – which also ended in a 1-1 

draw – between the Finmeccanica 

Stars, captained by Chairman Pier 

Francesco Guarguaglini and the Old 

Stars, made up of former professional 

stars, which this year featured 

in the Italian line-up Anquilletti, 

Grandoni, Mariotti, Sormani, Savoldi, 

Anastasi, Bettega and Muraro, as well 

as Peter Shilton, England’s goalkeeper 

in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. 

These pages: the final day of the Finmeccanica 

football tournament, won by Lombardy 

98 

99

E V E N T S 


POMPEII: 

DANCE IN A PLACE 

OF TIMELESS BEAUTY 

FEATURING MAJOR STARS OF THE CONTEMPORARY BAL- 

LET SCENE AND THE CORPS DE BALLET OF THE SAN CARLO 

THEATRE IN NAPLES, A GALA EVENT ON 27 JULY 2010 

SPONSORED BY FINMECCANICA, ALENIA AERONAUTICA, 

ANSALDOBREDA, ANSALDO STS AND SELEX SISTEMI INTE- 

GRATI TURNED THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE AMPHITHEATRE 

OF POMPEII, ONE OF THE TREASURES OF THE CITY 

On 27 July 2010, the amphitheatre 

of Pompeii, one of the 

treasures in the archaeological 

site lying in the shadow of Mount 

Vesuvius, which was recently reopened 

after some 20 years of closure 

and 15 months of restoration, 

hosted a dance gala by the corps de 

ballet of the San Carlo theatre in 

Naples. Supported by Fondazione 

Campania dei Festival, the Italian 

Prime Minister’s Office and the 

Naples and Pompeii Archaeological 

Supervisory Board, and sponsored by 

Finmeccanica and its subsidiaries 

Alenia Aeronautica, AnsaldoBreda, 

Ansaldo STS and SELEX Sistemi Integrati, 

the show was one of the unmissable 

events of this summer’s 

theatre season. Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, 

Schubert, Piazzolla: some of the 

finest contemporary ballet works 

were performed alongside a number 

of the most famous and spectacular 

pas de deux in the classical repertoire, 

sensitively interpreted in a variety 

of styles by the many stars appearing 

with the Neapolitan corps 

de ballet. Ballet dancers of the calibre 

of Mathilde Froustey, Alessandro 

Macario, Anbeta Toromani, Dominic 

Walsh and Domenico Luciano created 

an unforgettable evening out of 

the show designed by Giuseppe Carbone, 

who transported the audience 

from the wonderful historic setting 

to romantic fairytales such as Swan 

Lake and The Nutcracker, the worldrenowned 

Don Quixote and Giselle 

and more contemporary works such 

as 21 passi distante da te by Edmondo 

Tucci and Robert North’s Death and 

the Maiden. To mark the concert, the 

San Carlo theatre also organised a 

night-time visit to the excavation site 

of the House of the Chaste Lovers, 

the home of a rich baker that takes 

its name from the decorative panel 

showing the innocent kiss of two 

lovers discovered in 1987 and only reopened 

to the public this year, and 

the House of Julius Polybius, a rich 

freed slave who accompanied the 

visitors through the most important 

rooms of his home thanks to the 

state-of-the-art multimedia facilities. 

This gave the audience the chance to 

take in even more of the evening’s 

magic, with the evocative stage design 

ensuring that this would be one 

evening they would not forget. The 

continued commitment shown by 

Finmeccanica and its companies to 

culture in Italy enabled the Group’s 

employees to benefit from specific 

discounts as part of a summer promotion 

that included the show Hecho 

en Chile, performed by Inti Illimani 

Històrico, staged at the San 

Carlo theatre on 31 July. 

These pages: scenes from the dance gala 

at the amphitheatre in Pompeii 

100 101

C H A R I T Y 


THE FACE 

OF HOPE 

EXTENSIVE INVOLVEMENT OF DRS TECHNOLOGIES STAFF IN OP- 

ERATION MEND, A PROGRAMME INVOLVING SURGEONS AND 

HEALTHCARE UNITS WHOSE OBJECTIVE IS TO COVER THE COSTS 

OF RECONSTRUCTIVE PLASTIC SURGERY FOR US SOLDIERS DIS- 

FIGURED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN. OVER ONE MILLION DOL- 

LARS COLLECTED WITHIN THE COMPANY 

On Wednesday, May 11, 2005, Marine 

Corporal Aaron Mankin, a 

Marine Corps combat correspondent, 

was travelling in Ubadi, Iraq, when 

his vehicle rolled over an improvised explosive 

device. 

The 26-ton vehicle was thrown 10 feet into 

the air. Cpl. Mankin, who found himself 

engulfed in flames, inhaled fire, sand 

and the contents of the exploded vehicle 

and lost consciousness while trying to 

extinguish the blaze. He awoke to the 

sound of fellow Marines screaming, “Put 

him out. Put him out!” 

When the fire was out he tried to make 

his way to help the Marines still trapped 

in the burning vehicle. That was the last 

thing he remembers. Forty-eight hours 

later, Cpl. Mankin found himself in a bed 

at Brooke Army Medical Center in San 

Antonio, Texas. He had sustained burns 

over 25 percent of his body, and his ears, 

nose and mouth were essentially gone. 

Only his goggles had prevented the loss 

of his eyesight. Although Brooke Army 

Medical Center healed his wounds and 

the Center for the Intrepid provided the 

rehabilitation he needed, his face was severely 

disfigured. Fortunately, he was selected 

to receive very specialized reconstructive 

surgery by some of the finest 

plastic surgeons in the world. 

In September 2007, Cpl. Mankin became 

the first participant in Operation Mend, a 

program that underwrites the cost of reconstructive 

surgery for US service members 

who have been severely disfigured 

in Iraq and Afghanistan. To date, Cpl. 

Mankin has undergone over 50 surgeries. 

With only a few more to go, the program 

has given him hope. “As I come out of the 

operating room looking better and better 

each time, that makes each day better 

and better,” says Cpl. Mankin. 

Launched with the help of philanthropist 

Ronald A. Katz, a member of the Ronald 

Reagan UCLA Medical Center advisory 

board, the program is a collaboration between 

the surgeons and staff of Ronald 

Reagan UCLA Medical Center and Brooke 

Army Medical Center. Because of the 

unique aspect of the program, Operation 

Mend serves as a model for other medical 

institutions interested in helping wounded 

service members with catastrophic injuries. 

To date, dozens of patients have 

been treated through Operation Mend 

and the numbers continue to rise dramatically 

every year. 

DRS Technologies’ journey to help Operation 

Mend began late last year after hearing 

about the program from the Intrepid 

Relief Fund, which DRS has collaborated 

with for several years. DRS Chairman and 

CEO Mark Newman and Public Affairs 

and Communications Senior Vice President 

Richard Goldberg travelled to the 

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 

January to meet Cpl. Mankin and the 

amazing surgeons at UCLA, as well as to 

develop a video to share with the DRS 

workforce. 

Once there, they were impressed with the 

commitment of the hospital, members of 

the board and Dr Timothy Miller, chief of 

the Division of Plastic & Reconstructive 

Surgery at the David Geffen School of 

Medicine at UCLA. When they met Cpl. 

Mankin, they were astounded by his positive 

energy, drive and determination. 

“Never have I seen so much good come 

out of such devastating injury,” says 

Newman. “Even after countless operations, 

Aaron’s energy and positive message 

inspires everyone around him. He is 

a hero in every sense of the word. It is individuals 

like Aaron that helps us all realize 

that there is no greater good we can 

do as a company than to help the men 

and women who have been seriously injured 

protecting our freedom.” During 

the visit, they were informed that more 

than 100 service members could qualify 

for the program. Many of those injured 

required more than a dozen surgeries, 

and costs could go as high as USD 

500,000 for those with the most severe 

injuries. They learned that although the 

Center for the Intrepid and the Brooke 

Army Medical Center heals the wounds 

and provides therapy for catastrophic injuries 

sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, 

there was little that could be done when 

it came to restoring someone to a level of 

normalcy who had severe facial burns, 

because of the highly specialized surgery 

and long-term treatment required. 

“As devastating as loss of a limb can be, it 

is hard to imagine losing your face,” says 

Goldberg. “That’s like losing your identity.” 

Back on the East Coast, brochure, posters, 

donation cards and communications 

plan were quickly developed by Corporate 

Public Affairs team to roll out the 

program to DRS employees, with the 

launch taking place at the annual DRS 

Leadership Conference held in March. 

After a compelling and emotional presentation, 

capped off with an appearance 

by Cpl. Mankin himself, DRS executives 

generously contributed approximately 

USD 425,000, demonstrating their commitment 

to support the program. The 

amount increased with a USD 200,000 

donation by the DRS Charitable Foundation. 

Cpl. Mankin joined Newman on 

stage at the end of the conference to receive 

a ceremonial check for USD 625,000 

and a standing ovation. 

“I think our leaders proved without hesitation 

that they are willing to do just 

about anything to help the men and 

women injured while serving their country,” 

says Goldberg. “It was a very moving 

moment for us as a company.” 

With the support of its executives, DRS 

kicked off its campaign, holding ‘allhands’ 

meetings at every location 

throughout the United States to promote 

the program. To date, contributions 

exceed USD 1,080,000. 

“I am extremely proud of the generosity 

displayed by our workforce to contribute 

this much money for such a remarkable 

program,” says Newman. “Our wounded 

servicemen and women who will benefit 

from this highly specialized care deserve 

nothing less.” 

According to Operation Mend founder 

Ronald A. Katz, the greatest gift provided 

through the program is a new optimism 

for life. “Their eye is closed, and you open it. 

That’s the first operation,” says Ronald. 

“And, all of a sudden, their attitude 

changes. Because hope springs as a result 

of little successes.” 

The DRS Charitable Foundation continues 

to support Operation Mend and the 

hope that it gives to men and women injured 

while fighting for freedom. For 

more about contributing to Operation 

Mend, visit www.drsfoundation.net. 

Above: Dr Timothy Miller, Chief of the Division of 

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at the David Geffen 

School of Medicine at UCLA 

Above: in the operating room at the Ronald Reagan 

UCLA Medical Center. 

Right: DRS Chairman and CEO Mark Newman 

(centre) and Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and 

Communications, Richard Goldberg present a check 

to Marine Corporal Aaron P. Mankin 

102 103

AMERICANNews 04 

Publishing director 

Lorenzo Borgogni 

Editorial committee 

Giovanni Bertolone, Lorenzo Borgogni, 

Lorenzo Fiori, Marco Forlani, 

Roberto Maglione, Giovanni Soccodato 

Editor-in-chief 

Umberto Malusà 

Editorial staff 

Tina Di Benedetto, Stefania Mignoli, 

Alessandra Picardi, Vincenzo Pisani, 

Silvia Silvetti, Gianbattista Vittorioso, 

Francesca Zanichelli 

Editorial board 

Daniela Bernini, Cecilia Brugnoli, Italia Cardillo, 

Enzo Chieppa, Silvia Del Prete, 

Maria De Marchis, Tiziana Ebano, 

Angelica Falchi, Fulvia Forti, Richard Goldberg, 

Alberto Grampa, David Jones, Marina Magnani, 

Nadia Mastrostefano, Paolo Mazzetti, 

Flavia Negretti, Nicolò Occhipinti, 

Giacomo Perfetto, Ornella Porcelli, Ian Purcell, 

Rosa Ricciardi, Roberta Samarelli, 

Federica Santini, Damian Schogger, 

Stefano Somma, Alessandro Uccello 

With the collaboration of 

Roberto Alatri, Carlo Albanese, Maura Batelli, 

Angelo Bonerba, Filippo Britti, Livia Buttarelli, 

Claudio Ceccarelli, Barbara Cruciani, 

Ernesto Cucchi, Davide Dal Maso, 

Alessandra Danesi, Antonella De Montis, 

Donatella Farina, Francesca Flores, Chiara Ganz, 

Vittorio Gentile, Gianluca Grimaldi, 

Angela Grisolia, Luisa Iaia, Stefania Iannuzzi, 

Cinzia Marcanio, Viviana Panaccia, 

Alfredo Pigiani, Emanuele Ricci, Clare Roberts, 

Isolina Rogai, Riccardo Rovere, 

Naeran Rubio, Paolo Salomone, 

Emanuele Serafini, Giovanni Trotto, 

Carla Maria Tosi Beleffi 

Publishing coordinator 

Peliti Associati 

Editorial manager 

Valeria Accornero 

Art director 

Mario Peliti 

Layout 

Fulvio Forleo 

Editing 

Alessandro Mauro 

Editing for English version 

Testing & Tutoring Services 

Photographs 

Guido Baldini, Luca Campigotto, 

Enrico Lombardi, Dario Mitidieri, Marta Piazza, 

Santo Tomasello 

Aeronautica Militare archives 

AgustaWestland archives 

Alenia Aeronautica archives 

AnsaldoBreda archives 

Ansaldo Energia archives 

Ansaldo STS archives 

Corbis archives 

Contrasto archives 

DRS Technologies archives 

E-Geos archives 

Elsag Datamat archives 

Esercito Italiano archives 

FATA archives 

Fondazione Museo dell’Aeronautica Volandia 

Getty Images archives 

Guardia di Finanza archives 

Motociclismo magazine archives 

NASA archives 

SELEX Communications archives 

SELEX Galileo archives 

SELEX Sistemi Integrati archives 

Telespazio archives 

Thales Alenia Space archives 

Printed by 

Prostampa Sud 

Registration 

Magazine registered with the court of Rome 

number 564 - 22/12/2004 

Printed on ecological paper from sustainable 

forest controlled and certificated with full 

respect for current environmental norms. 

Distribution: 70,000 copies. 


FCRE/DCOM Department 

Piazza Monte Grappa, 4 

00195 Rome – Italy 

Tel.: +39 06 32 47 33 44 

E-mail: tina.dibenedetto@finmeccanica.com 

stefania.mignoli@finmeccanica.com 

2 

4 

6 

8 

CYBER SECURITY: A CHALLENGE TO SHARE 

ADAPTING TO TOMORROW’S 

STRATEGIC CHALLENGES 

ASSESSING DEFENSE MARKETS IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

COMMITTED TO GLOBAL SECURITY 

10 

VISITING ELSAG: BEHIND 

THE CURTAIN OF A WORKING SUCCESS 

14 

WHEN COMPLIANCE MEANS GROWTH 

15 

A SCHOOL FOR SECURING THE FUTURE

AMERICANNews 

CYBER SECURITY: 

A CHALLENGE 

TO SHARE 

Frances Fragos Townsend 

Intelligence and National Security Alliance, Chairwoman of the Board 

Former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism 

PROTECTION FROM CYBER CRIMINALS IS A SERIOUS NATIONAL 

PROBLEM FOR BOTH INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT, AND NEITHER 

CAN SOLVE IT ALONE. A COMMON PROBLEM THAT CALLS FOR A COM- 

MON SOLUTION: A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP TO CREATE A 

MORE SECURE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE 

The United States is the most targeted 

market in the world by cyber 

criminals and every year US businesses 

and citizens lose untold millions to 

cyber crime through financial schemes, 

lost proprietary data or intellectual property 

and identity theft. As a former Assistant 

to the President for Homeland Security 

and Counterterrorism, I can assure 

you these concerns about the national cyber 

security environment are acutely felt 

by the US government. Each year it loses 

valuable personal information and in 

some more serious cases, vital national 

security information and technologies 

are compromised. A shared problem calls 

for a shared solution, which is why the 

only logical way forward toward a more 

secure national information infrastructure 

is through a public-private partnership. 

A partnership between industry 

and government would leverage the 

strengths, advantages and specific roles 

of each to create a dynamic and robust 

system of national cyber security. While 

the government has the legal and moral 

authorities required to organize markets, 

enforce laws and protect citizens’ privacy 

and property, the private sector is where 

most of the expertise in the fields of IT 

and cyber security resides and is also a 

great engine of innovation. Each partner 

must use its unique attributes to create a 

partnership that is effective, equitable 

and mutually beneficial. 

For the private sector, this means self-organizing 

to lay the groundwork for a unified 

interaction with government despite 

the fact that the government is not 

presently organized for this partnership. 

Responsibility for the cyber problem is located 

in disparate places across federal 

agencies. The private sector therefore 

should take measures to collectively protect 

itself. These efforts should include efforts 

to organize information sharing 

agreements and methods for the creation 

of industry-wide security standards and 

best practices. This is easier said than 

done however, as issues like anti-trust 

laws and concerns over the security of private 

or proprietary information hinder robust 

information sharing arrangements. 

In addition, various contemporary and 

competing security standards muddy the 

waters and frustrate the creation of an 

inclusive, industry-wide process. Despite 

these complications, the private sector 

must explore arrangements that could 

enable these two collective processes not 

only because it can lay the groundwork 

for a productive partnership with government, 

but also because on their own, 

standardized security practices and reporting, 

coupled with active information 

and threat data sharing can make companies 

safer. Finally, this sort of unified 

action will provide leadership and a willing 

partner for government and alleviate 

public pressure to address the problem, 

which can assure it is not later done too 

rapidly and without the necessary organization 

and consultation to assure its effectiveness. 

As for the government, of its myriad cyber 

priorities, first and foremost should be 

the clarification of roles, responsibilities 

and the imparting of authorities. The cyber 

problem right now is led from the 

White House with the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) and the United 

States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) 

as operational leads for the .gov, .com and 

.mil domains, respectively. However, DHS 

lacks the necessary authority to carry out 

its mission and responsibilities. Countless 

cyber ‘war games’ over the past few years 

have shown a worrying level of confusion 

over legal and policy authorities in various 

agencies, and the government response 

to the Conficker worm and other 

vulnerabilities has shown that regulatory 

agencies like DHS have no power to compel 

compliance with its directives, denying 

the US government a cyber security 

leader organization. If the United States 

cyber defenses are to improve and secure 

our networks and data, there must be 

clear plans, priorities and responsibilities 

as well as empowered federal entities 

who are set up for success. 

Just as importantly, the government 

must focus its regulatory efforts in the 

private sector toward incentivizing and 

not coercing behavior. Businesses act according 

to a profit motive and blanket requirements 

with draconian penalties can 

do serious damage by stifling innovation 

and creative risk-taking. The government 

must recognize that despite its expertise 

and knowledge of the problem, the only 

way to greatly improve private sector cyber 

security is to create a business environment 

where there are substantial 

benefits to being the most secure and the 

most forthcoming with information sharing. 

The creation of information-sharing 

safe harbor laws to protect corporations 

from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 

requirements on proprietary data and anti-trust 

regulations could go a long way 

towards spurring greater information 

sharing and in turn lowering response 

times and protecting more data. Additionally, 

the creation of universally accepted 

and federally recognized security 

certifications and standards could provide 

contracting officers and insurance 

companies a useful point of reference on 

the security of a firm’s network and feed 

into market enforcement mechanisms 

such as federal contracting processes and 

insurance premiums. 

These are only a few of the ideas that are 

currently making their way through policy 

circles, but the important takeaway is 

that cyber security is a serious national 

problem for both industry and government, 

and neither can solve it alone. The 

government has plenty of work to do in 

organizing responsibilities and authorities, 

identifying roles and priorities and 

clarifying what is and is not ‘cyber’. But 

the private sector cannot simply wait for 

the government to accomplish these 

goals when they are being attacked 

hourly at a very serious cost. The private 

sector must begin to organize for its own 

collective defense and prepare its own security 

organizations, in culture, lexicon 

and technology, to interact effectively 

with each other and the US government. 

If this is done, industry can address government 

with one voice, speaking to 

them from an even footing and be a true 

partner in the improvement of the nation’s 

cyber security, not only assuring 

that the information flowing over these 

networks is more secure, but also that 

hasty regulation does not beget unintended 

negative consequences for the 

bottom line or national security. 

2 

3

AMERICANNews 

ADAPTING TO 

TOMORROW’S 

STRATEGIC 

CHALLENGES 

GENERAL JAMES E. CARTWRIGHT (USMC), THE CURRENT VICE 

CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, WAS THE OPENING 

SPEAKER AT THE FINMECCANICA SPONSORED CENTER FOR 

STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES’ (CSIS) GLOBAL SECURITY 

FORUM ON MAY 13TH IN WASHINGTON, DC. HERE IS AN EXCERPT 

OF HIS REMARKS 

“If I were to look at all of the activity 

that has gone on in these recent 

reviews in comparison to the 

years and years of reviews that we have 

gone through in the Department of Defence 

(DOD), this one is probably marked – 

this set of reviews is probably marked in 

two ways that are unique: The first is [...] 

we’re at war. And so we’re going through 

these reviews in stride of conflict. Sometimes 

in stride of conflict and sometimes 

almost in denial of conflict... 

Our first reaction in the military to a problem 

is go build something [...]. The problem 

is competitive advantages out there 

in the battlefield is in a 30-day cycle, not a 

30-year cycle. [...]. It took us 15 years to design 

the Joint Strike Fighter. It will take us 

another 10 to field it and then we expect 

30 years of life out of it. 

To think that that’s going to maintain 

competitive advantage for the nation, to 

think that far back – 40, 50 years – we understood 

what the battlefield was going 

to look like when this vehicle’s out there 

misses the essence of where competitive 

advantage is going to be in the future – 

and today. And so we’ve got to come to 

grips with that. [...] Another area that I 

think is absolutely essential is the economy 

[...]. In my role as the lead for requirements 

in the department, we have a saying 

that [...] there are a thousand good 

ideas out there. The ones that don’t have 

resource behind them are called hallucinations 

because they’re interesting to talk 

about, but they’re not going to get to the 

foxhole with you. And there are any num- 

ber of [...] former DOD Comptrollers [...] 

that will tell you that trying to do business 

in a world where resource constraints are 

going to be significant is difficult. 

There is no precedent for sustaining the 

deficits that we are in right now and are 

projected in our future. [...] The ability to 

recover from them has no real precedent. 

We’ve got a significant problem in front of 

us and waging war in that construct is 

something that we’re going to have to understand 

and think our way through. 

And so the Secretary of Defense and I have 

spent [...] time at forums like this saying, 

wake up, you’re not going to have 300, 500 

ships. You are not going to have thousands 

of new aircraft unless we change 

the way we’re doing business because just 

saying I need it and therefore it’s important 

and therefore you’re going to provide 

it is not going to go much further. And you 

cannot build strategy in the absence of resource. 

It’s just a fact [...]. 

I think for me the headlines in the Quadrennial 

Defense Review (QDR) are first, focus 

on the war and the fight that you’re in. 

Keep an eye on the most dangerous, but 

you’ve got to focus your resource and your 

capability and your intellectual capital on 

the fight that you’re in. You can wish for another 

future, but you cannot get there unless 

you can take care of the present[...]. 

Another piece here is the realization that, 

at least from the DOD’s perspective, we 

have focused inward for most of our strategy 

planning over the years. Inward – by 

that I mean, what is it we are going to do 

as a nation? How are we going to deter, 

deny, dissuade, assure – whatever it is that 

this week’s buzzwords are – how are we 

going to do that as a nation? 

The reality is we don’t fight alone; we 

don’t deter alone; we don’t assure alone. 

Everything is done in partnership. Everything 

is done in coalitions. And if we don’t 

do our strategy thinking about up and out 

instead of down and inward, we will miss 

the point of the way we do business [...]. 

There are other very capable nations out 

there, very willing to partner up. [...] We’ve 

got to make sure that our strategy is inclusive, 

not just acknowledges but brings in 

and incorporates the capabilities of those 

we’re likely to be partnered with [...]. 

People will immediately say, oh, you can’t 

rely on that. Well, I’ll tell you one thing you 

can rely on is you cannot afford to do 

everything yourself [...]. The QDR really hit 

hard on those points: building the partnership 

capacities, starting to understand 

how we’re going to leverage the combined 

capabilities, not only of our allies 

but of our industry and of our academic 

resources. These are two areas that we 

have not tapped well, particularly commerce. 

We need to be in a lot of places. We 

need quantity more than we need that 

high-end exquisite capability and if we 

can’t figure out how to get to that, then 

again, we’re living in denial of the world 

we’re in, hoping for the world we want to 

have in front of us.” 

Above: General James E. Cartwright. 

Right: Mr. Raymond DuBois, General Peter Pace, 

Dr. Maren Leed, Ambassador Thomas Pickering 

during the Global Security Forum organised by 

Center for Strategic & International Studies 

4 

5

AMERICANNews 

ASSESSING DEFENSE 

MARKETS IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

Ken Krieg 

Renaissance Strategic Advisors and Member of the SSA Board for DRS Technologies 

OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, THE MARKET FOR DEFENSE AND SECU- 

RITY GOODS AND SERVICES IN THE US AND ELSEWHERE WILL BE 

CHALLENGING FOR GOVERNMENTS AND INDUSTRY ALIKE. HOWEV- 

ER, US MARKET WILL REMAIN VERY ATTRACTIVE TO THE INDUSTRY. 

EXECUTE, INNOVATE, STRONGLY MANAGE COSTS AND MARGIN, 

GROWTH THROUGH STRATEGY BASED ACQUISITION ARE THE LEVERS 

TO MANAGE THROUGH THE CHANGE IN THE YEARS TO COME 

Since 2001, the market for defense 

goods and services around the 

world – and particularly in the United 

States – has seen robust year over year 

growth. The response to attacks of 9/11, 

including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 

and heightened activity elsewhere in the 

world, resulted in strong demand over 

the period. Consequently, the companies 

that serve those markets have seen 

growth in demand, revenue and profitability. 

Finmeccanica and its subsidiary 

companies and affiliates have grown 

smartly during the period. 

Change is in the Air 

The industry has shown an historical 

tendency toward cyclicality – commercial 

aerospace driven by economic cycles and 

the defense industry driven by a combination 

of cycles of conflict and varying 

political support. The global recession of 

the last several years obviously shook the 

foundations of many markets and companies. 

But, the global defense industry 

weathered the start of the recession better 

than many sectors. 

Much of the industry just recently assembled 

for one of its largest annual 

gatherings at the Farnborough Air Show. 

A number of analysts opined that the 

mood of the defense industry – assuming 

for a moment that it is even possible 

to assign an emotional state to an industry 

– was subdued. 

While the commercial sector shows 

some signs of rebounding, the front end 

of the defense cycle of change appears to 

be underway in the United States, United 

Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and elsewhere. 

Strategy reviews, budget reviews, 

spending priority reassessments are active 

in every national capital. 

The conditions appear to be evolving 

such that, over the next five years, the 

market for defense and security goods 

and services in the United States and 

elsewhere will be challenging for governments 

and industry alike. Several factors 

are converging simultaneously. 

First, macro-economic and federal government 

budget pressures will grow and 

intensify as continued pressure for economic 

stimulus, costs of extended foreign 

conflict and growing social entitlements 

demands meet the reality of debt 

servicing. After a period of extreme 

growth in federal borrowing and historically 

low interest rates, the United States 

risks a significant budget challenge, if – 

or when – markets begin to demand 

greater interest rates to service its debt. 

Second, over the same period, the American 

body politic will decide whether it 

can sustain continued large scale operations 

in Afghanistan and Iraq (while the 

United States removed all combatant 

forces in August 2010, it still has 50,000 

troops in Iraq at this point). Polls suggest 

that American public support has been 

wavering over the recent months. 

Third, countering those pressures, real 

and present dangers will remain in the 

world and the United States will have to 

continue to evolve its defense capabilities 

over the period to be able to respond. 

The results – absent a significant attack 

on the United States and its interests – 

will likely be three-fold: 

• less money available for the Department 

of Defense and, in particular, acquisition 

of large end-items; 

• strong government efforts to both extract 

efficiencies in acquisition programs 

and services and increase detailed 

oversight; 

• likely conflicting signals about the priorities 

of capabilities desired. 

The United States shares many of these 

realities and likely results with its European 

friends and allies. For that reason, 

the US defense market – even with the 

changes envisioned above – will remain 

very attractive to the industry. It will likely 

soften but will do so from significantly 

high levels. 

Responding to Reality 

So how do you think about responding in 

this environment? I offer four key vectors 

to consider. 

Execute, execute, execute – if there was 

ever a period of time to be on cost, schedule 

and performance, this is it. Poor performers 

will likely be susceptible to pressure 

for cuts to a greater degree than in 

the recent past. 

Innovate – Disruptive opportunities may 

exist for suppliers that can deliver capability 

and lower cost especially as platforms 

are sustained for longer periods of 

time. 

Protect the bottom line as the top line 

falls – shifting contract types, significant 

overhead reductions, organizational simplification, 

stronger supply chain management 

and other tools offer opportunities 

assuming the government buyer 

can stand increasing margins for suppliers 

in return for lower costs. 

Strategic mergers and acquisition activity 

– opportunities will likely be out there. 

The challenge will be to know what you 

want and when to buy. 

In the rising tide of the last few years, all 

boats were able to float more effectively. 

Going forward, the challenge will be to 

manage a receding tide, assuming that 

happens. Challenges always beget opportunities 

for those ready to face them. 

Execute, innovate, strongly manage costs 

and margin, growth through strategy 

based acquisition – at least of few of the 

levers you have to manage through the 

change in the years to come. 

6 

7

AMERICANNews 

COMMITTED 

TO GLOBAL 

SECURITY 

THE FIRST-EVER GLOBAL SECURITY FORUM ORGANIZED BY CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNA- 

TIONAL STUDIES, HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC ON MAY WITH THE SUPPORT OF FINMECCANICA, 

SHOWS THAT GROUP’S COMMITMENT TO INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES EXTENDS BEYOND 

JUST THE INDUSTRIAL BASE, BUT ALSO TO THE INTELLECTUAL BASE THAT WILL HAVE A SAY IN FU- 

TURE US DEFENSE POLICY 

On May 13, 2010 Dr. John J. Hamre, 

President and CEO of the Center 

for Strategic & International Studies 

(CSIS) and former US Deputy Secretary 

of Defense, welcomed the more than 400 

attendees that filled the ballroom of the 

Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC to 

its first-ever Global Security Forum. The 

forum was made possible with the support 

of Finmeccanica. CSIS, one of the 

most reputable think tanks on defense 

and security issues in the USA, is not new 

to these types of initiatives, but this event 

was touted by Dr. Hamre as being CSIS’s 

“prominent national security conference 

on cutting-edge security issues.” 

Living up to that billing, the impressive 

list of speakers, panelists, and moderators 

throughout the day included (in no particular 

order): 

• General James E. Cartwright, USMC – 

Vice Chairman of the Join Chiefs of 

Staff; 

• General Brent Scowcroft, USAF (ret) – 

President, The Scowcroft Group and 

Former National Security Adivsor; 

• Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) 

– Chair, Homeland Security Subcommittee 

on Intelligence and Terrorism 

Risk Assessment; 

• Mr. David Ignatius – Columnist and Associate 

Editor, The Washington Post; 

• General Peter Pace, USMC (ret.) – 16 th 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 

and Member, Finmeccanica’s Senior 

Defense Advisory Committee; 

• Ambassador John D. Negroponte – Vice 

Chairman, McLarty Associates and Former 

Deputy Secretary of State and Former 

Director of National Intelligence; 

• The Honorable Richard L. Armitage – 

President, Armitage Internaional L.C. 

and Former Deputy Secretary of State; 

• Mr. Mark Newman – Chairman and 

CEO, DRS Technologies Inc. 

Keeping in line with CSIS’s goal to provide 

“strategic insights and policy solutions to 

decision-makers in government, international 

institutions, the private sector, and 

civil society”, the Global Security Forum 

addressed a wide range of questions from 

“Are We Headed Toward a Smaller Defense 

Industrial Base?” to “Is America 

Ready for Robots on the Battlefield?” 

Though as broad as these discussion topics 

were, every panel successfully addressed 

the underlying theme that General 

Cartwright outlined during his opening 

address, which was Adapting to Tomorrow’s 

Strategic Challenges (See an excerpt 

of that address in this same edition 

of the Finmeccanica Magazine). 

“To allow for an event like this to take 

place with such high-caliber, talented, 

and thought-provoking individuals discussing 

the difficult topics facing us today, 

shows that Finmeccanica’s commitment 

to investment in the United States 

extends beyond just the industrial base, 

but also to the intellectual base that will 

have a say in future US defense policy.” 

said Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, the 

Chairman and CEO of Finmeccanica, who 

was in attendance. 

Further bolstering the importance that 

the forum’s partnership with CSIS and 

policy discussions meant to Finmeccanica, 

the Board of Directors also timed their 

visit to see Finmeccanica’s operations in 

the United States in order to allow them 

to attend this significant conference. 

Prior to the forum, on May 12 th a private 

dinner was also hosted by CSIS at the 

Daughters’ of American Revolution, also 

in Washington, DC. Attendees included 

former US Senators John Warner and Ted 

Stevens, as well as the majority of the 

conference’s panelists. The guest speaker 

that evening was The Honorable Michèle 

A. Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense 

for Policy. Secretary Flournoy’s remarks 

touched on overarching issues facing the 

US, but also set the tone heading into the 

Global Security Forum. 

8 

9

AMERICANNews 

VISITING ELSAG: 

BEHIND THE 

CURTAIN 

OF A WORKING 

SUCCESS 

A DAY IN THE COMPANY’S MANUFACTURING PLANT IN GREENS- 

BORO, NORTH CAROLINA, SHOWS HOW CAMARADERIE, INNOVA- 

TION, LEADERSHIP AND PRIDE ABOUT MAKING THE DIFFERENCE 

FOSTER OUTSTANDING RESULTS AND THE ONGOING DOMINA- 

TION OF THE AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION INDUSTRY 

Acharming visit to Elsag North 

America’s manufacturing plant in 

Greensboro, North Carolina is all 

you need to understand why this Finmeccanica 

company has enjoyed so 

much success in recent years and how it 

is poised to continue its domination of 

the Automatic License Plate Recognition 

(ALPR) industry. A day in the life at Elsag 

instantly reveals that this team is more 

like a family than anything else. They embody 

the work hard, play hard approach 

identified within a wide array of successful 

companies. With multiple departments 

having their own focus and moving 

at a brisk pace, there is a united mission 

that keeps these moving parts in cohesion, 

a task that for most organizations 

is difficult to achieve. The teams 

and their objectives all seem to move fluidly 

together while maintaining the 

same discipline and direction. 

Above: lab technician Sewyalew ‘Sway’ Taddele. 

Facing page: lab technician Palama Loma-David 

10 11

AMERICANNews 

As is true for the company on a global 

scale, Elsag’s plant in Greensboro, NC has 

experienced rapid growth. As Elsag continues 

to win contracts left and right 

from law enforcement agencies in the 

United States and abroad, the manufacturing 

facility has witnessed ever-increasing 

demand for their market leading Mobile 

Plate Hunter-900 (MPH-900). With 

a strong research and development team 

that is constantly innovating and updating 

its technology in order to stay ahead 

of the competition, it is important to note 

that not only has production increased, it 

has significantly evolved as well. For their 

model to garner success and maintain its 

position as undisputed leader in ALPR 

technology, each of the Elsag internal 

teams have recognized the need to be in 

constant contact to ensure they are on 

the same page and working toward the 

same goals. 

In just a few short years, this team has 

gone from producing traditional black 

and white image cameras, to full color 

cameras and now they even offer highresolution 

cameras. In fact, the Italian 

Carabinieri just received a significant 

quantity of them. The production methods 

are altered depending on the scope of 

different projects and their customers’ 

needs. Among myriad interesting things 

at the facility in Greensboro, one gets to 

see a number of stealthy applications for 

the cameras. The cameras can be found in 

Thule roof-racks for undercover vehicles 

or in the tool box of a pick-up truck. Orange 

pylons that are a staple of highways 

across America are present at the plant 

with virtually undetectable MPH-900 

systems. It is these kind of ideas that are 

born within Elsag every day resulting 

from customer feedback and evolving industry 

needs. 

Speaking of the rapid growth and evolution 

that Elsag has undergone in a relatively 

brief period of time it’s appropriate 

to bring Clyde Horton, Michelle Hicks and 

Torrence ‘T’ Atiba to the forefront. As 

these three young pillars from Greensboro 

like to put it, they have grown up together 

‘with’ Elsag. One of their many 

mottos is ‘gotta get it done!’ and just one 

day with them will show you they mean 

business. But a heads up to future applicants, 

one of the prerequisites to join the 

team lies in the ability to take a joke in 

good stride and be able to give it back. By 

getting the best of their teammates they 

tend to bring out the best in one another. 

When asked what it is they like most 

about the job, Clyde, Michelle and ‘T’ respond 

in unison that they love the people 

they work with and that they make it a 

fun environment to walk into every day. 

“Coming from a Navy background, I never 

got to choose the people and/or qualities 

I seek in my colleagues,” explains Horton. 

“Here we have put a team in place that 

we really enjoy being around, we learn 

from and most importantly a team that 

continues to inspire each other to push 

the envelope, be innovative and ultimately 

more efficient.” 

Upon entrance to the pristine production 

floor one sees all of the electrical engineers 

highly concentrated on the various 

technical production phases for MPH- 

900. Stick around for a few minutes and 

you’re sure to gain a sense of camaraderie, 

acute focus and humor. Overseeing 

every step of the process and checking 

it thrice, these employees know that 

lives are at stake and they take a large 

sense of pride in what they do. They also 

realize that keeping the mood light and 

encouraging some good fun once in a 

while can often lead to higher quality and 

production. 

Clyde, Michelle and ‘T’ have grown with 

Elsag and with each other as this facility 

went from manufacturing ALPR systems 

for only a portion of the United States to 

the point of handling all of the company’s 

global output. The MPH-900 is now 

widely available in all fifty American 

states and is taking other foreign markets 

by storm. Elsag is making a big push in 

the European Union, the United Kingdom, 

India, Australia and South America. 

Taking a walk over to the customer service 

department and the same enthusiasm, 

positivity and get-it-done approach 

is prevalent. The Elsag customer service 

team is available 24 hours a day, 365 days 

a year and immediately respond to any inquiries 

or issues from their customers. 

Agency permitting, Elsag can remotely 

access the law enforcement agency’s 

computer and diagnose any problems 

and/or walk the officer through any number 

of processes to resolve the issue at 

hand, more often without having to send 

a field technician to the site. 

What keeps this department motivated 

falls in line with the others: knowing 

what they do is making a positive difference 

in the world. “It’s very rewarding to 

work with an officer or law enforcement 

agency to make sure their system is running 

properly and they are maximizing 

capability of our technology,” said Tom 

Leeps. “Especially when you turn around a 

few weeks later and read in the newspaper 

about a huge arrest they made with 

the help of the MPH-900.” 

Eric Smith and Andy Jones work hard all 

day to keep up with the high demand of 

new ideas for different prototypes and 

applications, but they welcome it and 

love it. “It’s really gratifying to be presented 

with a problem on a Monday, work out 

some ideas on the computer and actually 

see the prototype built within a few 

days,” said Smith. Working with a 3-D 

printer that melts plastic and then builds 

a model layer by layer right before their 

eyes they find exhilarating because they 

have a hand in every step of the process. 

The American market has borne witness 

to innumerable success stories where the 

MPH-900 has saved lives. Most recently 

in Arlington, VA a 67 year old man suffering 

from mental illness was reported 

missing for at least two days in temperatures 

exceeding 100 degrees. A vehicle associated 

with the man was subsequently 

broadcast by a local detective. The police 

department ran the registration through 

the MPH-900 system history and discovered 

that the license plate was read 

six times during the previous few days. 

After a quick search of those areas the victim 

was located in a severe state of dehydration. 

Health care officials involved in 

the case said the victim would not have 

survived the night had he not been im- 

mediately treated. 

A situation such as that is rare and lends 

even more credence to the system that 

has recovered incalculable stolen vehicles, 

has been used to collect millions of dollars 

in unpaid taxes and was even served 

as the most crucial piece of evidence to 

convict the murderer of a family in 

Fishkill, NY. The intelligence assets and security 

that these systems offer provide 

the Elsag team in Greensboro with plenty 

of motivation and serve as a strong affirmation 

that they are truly making a difference 

in the world. A day in the life at Elsag 

in Greensboro will make any Finmeccanica 

affiliate proud. 

Right: Clyde Hicks, Michelle Hicks and Torrence Atiba 

have worked as a team through the years 

12 13

AMERICANNews 

WHEN COMPLIANCE 

MEANS GROWTH 

THE FINMECCANICA NORTH AMERICA GROUP TRADE COMPLI- 

ANCE OFFICE HAS BEEN CHARGED WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR 

TRADE COMPLIANCE WITHIN THE FINMECCANICA GROUP, AND 

ORGANIZES ASSESSMENTS AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS PROVID- 

ING VALUABLE INSIGHT TO BEST PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES 

THAT FACILITATE KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES AND IMPROVE OVER- 

ALL COMPANY AWARENESS AND EFFECTIVENESS 

Since October 2008, the Finmeccanica 

North America (FNA) Group 

Trade Compliance Office (GTCO) has 

been charged with responsibility for 

trade compliance within the Finmeccanica 

Group. GTCO responsibilities include 

establishing, maintaining, administering, 

interpreting, and enforcing a Trade 

Compliance Program (TCP) intended to 

assure global compliance with US trade 

laws. The GTCO deploys a variety of tools 

to assist in accomplishing these objectives 

including the establishment of online 

education programs. Online education 

programs will serve as a central 

Group-wide learning center for compliance 

education courses in multiple languages. 

The GTCO also conducts trade 

compliance assessments at Finmeccanica 

facilities across the globe. In addition 

to assuring compliance, assessments and 

education programs provide valuable insight 

to best practices and procedures 

that facilitate knowledge resources and 

improve overall company awareness and 

effectiveness through consistent audit 

and training application. 

FNA is also the US State Department 

Central Registrant for all trade activity 

falling within that jurisdiction. As the 

Central Registrant, FNA is the US parent 

entity assuming ultimate responsibility 

and liability for compliance under the International 

Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations. 

The FNA Vice President, Licensing 

and Compliance, Mr. Gregory L. Bourn, 

serves as FNA’s senior officer responsible 

for overseeing the central registration 

and designating Program Registrant 

trade professionals as empowered officials. 

The primary role of the Central Registrant 

is to assure trade compliance with 

trade laws and regulations, executive orders, 

and other federal orders or directives 

of the United States pertaining to trade 

activities. This includes without limitation, 

the Arms Export Control Act and the 

International Traffic in Arms Regulations 

(ITAR), the Export Administration Act and 

the Export Administration Regulations 

(EAR), and the Trading with the Enemy 

Act, the International emergency Economic 

Powers Act, and the regulations 

promulgated under those acts by the 

United States Department of Treasury. 

The following US companies (subsidiaries) 

are included under FNA’s Central 

Registration: 

• Agusta Aerospace Corp. 

• AgustaWestland America, LLC 

• AgustaWestland, Inc. 

• AgustaWestland North America, Inc. 

• Alenia North America, Inc. 

• DRS Technologies, Inc. 

• DRS Defense Solutions 

• Oto Melara, Inc. 

• SELEX Communications, Inc. 

• SELEX Galileo, Inc. 

• SELEX Systems Integration 

• Telespazio North America 

• Westland Helicopters 

As the Central Registrant, the GTCO is the 

primary interface with the US Directorate 

of Defense Trade Controls for trade registration, 

licensing and compliance related 

matters. 

International Trade Outreach Program 

In addition to the virtual library and compliance 

assessment programs, the GTCO 

has created an Outreach Program to work 

with domestic and foreign affiliate colleagues 

that will include focused educational 

presentations as they pertain to international 

trade with a particular concentration 

on dealing with Trade and Security 

matters. The intent is to engage 

and train as many trade compliance employees 

as possible and to encourage participation 

with assessments, the development 

of best practices, and training 

across all affiliate companies. 

A SCHOOL FOR SECURING 

THE FUTURE 

Brigadier General 

William J. Leszczynski, Jr. (ret.) 

President and CEO, 

National Defense University Foundation 

The mission of the National Defense 

University (NDU) is to prepare military 

and civilian leaders from the 

United States and other countries to examine 

national and international security 

challenges through multidisciplinary educational 

and research programs, professional 

exchanges, and outreach. 

National security challenges of the 21 st 

century place a high priority on effective 

coordination of all the instruments of national 

power: diplomatic, political, economic, 

and informational as well as military. 

The National Defense University creates 

an opportunity for the professional 

practitioners within all of these disciplines 

to experience a common education – 

breaking down bureaucratic barriers to cooperation 

and increasing mutual trust 

and respect. Perhaps more importantly, 

the University’s student body also includes 

officers from as many as 60 nations 

at any one time, broadening and enlarging 

the community of professionals prepared 

to work toward global peace and security. 

No other institution is so perfectly 

postured to contribute to the search for 

peaceful solutions to the problems we 

face. And no other institution contributes 

so much to the assurance that, should 

peaceful means fail, the United States and 

its allies will prevail. 

Appropriated government funds generally 

THE NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY IS THE PREEMINENT JOINT INSTITU- 

TION FOR EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND OUTREACH IN NATIONAL AND IN- 

TERNATIONAL SECURITY. IT ALSO ORGANIZES THE AMERICAN PATRIOT 

AWARD GALA, WITH FINMECCANICA AS A LIBERTY SPONSOR 

cover ‘core’ operating and capital expenses, 

but do not consistently fully fund the 

array of educational programs and activities 

critical to international and interagency 

relationship building. For this reason, 

NDU depends on the National Defense 

University Foundation (NDUF) for 

additional financial resources and program 

support worthy of any great educational 

institution. 

Through a comprehensive and nationwide 

fundraising and outreach program, NDUF 

solicits philanthropic individuals, corpora- 

“So it falls to institutions 

like this – and to individuals 

like you – to help us 

understand the world as it is, 

to develop the capacities that 

we need to confront emerging 

danger, and to act with 

purpose and pragmatism to 

turn this moment of peril into 

one of promise. That’s how we 

will find new pathways to 

peace and security. 

That is the work we must do.” 

President Barack Obama 

National Defense University’s 

Abraham Lincoln Hall dedication 

March 12, 2009 

tions, and organizations committed to a 

secure and strong America. Additionally, 

NDUF, in collaboration with the University, 

develops and manages outreach programs 

that help educate and engage the 

American public for a better understanding 

of critical national security issues. 

In addition to its nation wide fundraising 

efforts, each year NDUF hosts an extraordinary 

event – The American Patriot 

Award Gala. The mid-career students at 

the National Defense University are the 

next generation of ambassadors, national 

and international military commanders 

and civilian defense industry leaders – patriots 

who have committed their lives to 

furthering the security of our nation and 

the world. Therefore, the National Defense 

University Foundation’s American Patriot 

Award recognizes exceptional Americans 

who have demonstrated a profound and 

abiding love of country and whose inspirational 

leadership and selfless dedication 

symbolizes our nation’s ideals, values and 

democratic principles. 

This year, the recipient of the American Patriot 

Award will be US Secretary of Defense, 

Dr. Robert M. Gates. Finmeccanica 

will be joining the NDU Foundation as a 

Liberty Sponsor celebrating Secretary 

Gates’ contributions to our National Security 

and the mission of the National Defense 

University. 

14 

15

AMERICANNews 

With the collaboration of 

Mark Aitken, Stephanie Battista, 

Gregory Bourn, Angelica Falchi, 

Nate Maloney, Mike Newell 

Photographs 

Corbis archives 

CSIS archives 

Elsag North America archives 

Getty Images archives

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