Italian defense contractor Leonardo has unveiled plans for the “Michelangelo Dome,” an advanced, artificial intelligence-driven system designed to integrate and coordinate Europe’s fragmented military assets against modern aerial threats.
Speaking to Richard Quest on CNN’s Quest Means Business, Leonardo CEO and General Manager Roberto Cingolani detailed the ambitious project, describing it as a “comprehensive system” set to be operational by 2028. Unlike traditional physical barriers, the Michelangelo Dome functions as a digital “open architecture” layer that connects existing hardware across land, air, and sea.
“The concept is an open architecture that allows communication of different defense systems from satellites, aircraft, land defense systems, ships, drones,” Cingolani told CNN. He explained that these platforms would be connected in a “cyber-protected environment,” allowing for the processing of hundreds of terabytes of data per second.
The system is being pitched as a solution to a logistical hurdle unique to the European Union: the lack of standardized equipment across its member states. Cingolani argued that with 27 countries operating different tanks and aircraft, buying a single, uniform platform is financially impossible. Instead, the Michelangelo Dome aims to make these disparate systems interoperable.
“We develop and add an upper layer of communication that allows different platforms from different builders to communicate,” Cingolani said. “Every country can participate. This is a sort of short track to accelerate the air defense.”
The system relies heavily on high-performance computing to analyze incoming data. “AI can evaluate the threat and assign the weapon to destroy the threat,” Cingolani explained, noting that the system is designed to handle “massive parallel attacks” involving swarms of drones or hypersonic missiles—threats that move too fast for traditional human-only command chains.
During the interview, Quest pressed Cingolani on the risks of such a system, asking if the technology could become “too clever for its own good” or diminish human oversight in lethal scenarios.
Cingolani pushed back, emphasizing that the speed of modern warfare necessitates AI assistance. “The standard human chain could be too slow for a massive parallel attack based on very fast threats like the missiles,” he said. He clarified that the AI acts to accelerate the detection and decision-making process for the human operator, providing the data needed to select the weapon with the “highest probability to destroy the threat.”
Leonardo positions the Michelangelo Dome as a necessary evolution for NATO standards, creating a “cloud” of defense capabilities that can track ballistic and hypersonic missiles via satellite and neutralize them using the most appropriate asset available in the theater.
“The more platforms you have interoperable into this defensive domain, the higher is the probability to neutralize the threat,” Cingolani concluded. “This is simply a communication problem.”