The Italian group Leonardo unveils “Michelangelo Dome,” an integrated, multi-domain air defense system designed to neutralize drones, hypersonic missiles, and modern threats.
Summary
Leonardo launches “Michelangelo Dome”: a new-generation, modular, interoperable, AI-driven air defense architecture. This system aims to protect critical infrastructure—cities, ports, airports, strategic facilities—against current and future threats: hypersonic missiles, swarm drones, coordinated attacks, cyberattacks. The idea is to create a multi-domain “shield” capable of detecting, tracking, and intercepting air, sea, and even space threats, while coordinating disparate sensors and effectors (air, sea, land, space) in real time. Michelangelo Dome is expected to be fully operational by 2028. Its modularity and compliance with NATO standards make it a likely candidate for adoption by several European countries.
The Michelangelo Dome concept
On November 27, 2025, Leonardo officially unveiled “Michelangelo Dome” at a conference in Rome. The project is described as an integrated global defense system: it is not just a missile, radar, or ground radar, but a complete architecture that combines land, naval, air, and space sensors, cyber defense platforms, command and control systems, artificial intelligence, and effectors capable of intercepting threats.
The ambition is high: the aim is to move from a compartmentalized defense model (radars, SAMs, artillery, PATRIOT, etc.) to a holistic model capable of simultaneously dealing with multiple, disparate threats and coordinating responses in a matter of seconds. The name “Dome” evokes the idea of a protective dome—a defensive screen covering a territory or a group of sites.
The system is modular and open: it can be integrated with a country’s existing equipment—radars, launchers, interceptors, satellites—and complies with NATO standards.
Targeted threats and the changing strategic context
The launch of Michelangelo Dome responds to an intensification of threats. These include:
- hypersonic missiles, capable of striking very quickly after launch, rendering traditional responses obsolete;
- swarms of drones—a growing number of drones, sometimes small and inexpensive, launched en masse to overwhelm defenses;
- combined strikes—missiles, drones, cyber attacks—targeting sensitive civilian or military infrastructure (energy, airports, ports, urban centers);
- naval or submarine attacks, in a context where coastal areas and ports are particularly vulnerable.
According to Leonardo, threats are evolving too quickly to be countered by traditional decision-making chains. Detection, decision-making, and engagement must be automated, or even anticipated, in order to neutralize missiles or drones flying at very high speeds, or coordinated attacks using various vectors.
Technologies at the heart of the system
Multi-domain sensor fusion and AI
Michelangelo Dome is based on the fusion of data from land, naval, air, and space sensors. Satellites—in orbit or in constellation—can detect the thermal or radar signatures of missiles in flight, maritime or coastal radars monitor naval approaches, cyber sensors monitor digital threats, while ground or airborne sensors monitor nearby airspace. This data is aggregated within a single command and control system.
A layer of artificial intelligence plays a central role. It analyzes data in real time, anticipates trajectories, identifies emerging threats, prioritizes targets, and then automatically triggers effectors (missiles, interceptor drones, countermeasures) depending on the nature of the threat. This use of AI reduces decision-making time and makes it possible to respond to ultra-fast threats such as hypersonic missiles.
Open architecture and interoperability
One of Michelangelo Dome’s claimed strengths is its interoperability. The system is not locked into specific equipment. A country with surface-to-air missiles, radars, or satellites can integrate them into the structure. This modular and flexible approach makes it potentially attractive to states with heterogeneous or limited arsenals.
This open nature also facilitates European cooperation and integration into multinational defense initiatives, without requiring uniform and costly investments by each country.
Multi-domain coverage
Michelangelo is not limited to conventional air defense. It aims to offer multi-domain coverage: air, sea, land, space, and cyberspace. This dimension is crucial in order to respond to the hybrid and multifaceted nature of current threats: missiles, drones, naval attacks, cyberattacks, etc.
This means that Michelangelo can, for example, combine coastal radars, warning satellites, naval effectors, surface-to-air interceptors, and cyber defense systems in a coordinated and centralized response.
Concrete advances and timeline
Leonardo indicates that the project is entering an active phase of development. The system was publicly unveiled on November 27, 2025, in Rome.
The group claims to have the industrial and technological capabilities to carry out the project: sensors, effectors, command, AI, cyber infrastructure, and multisectoral networking.
The objective is clear: to make Michelangelo Dome fully operational by 2028. This timetable provides for the gradual implementation of the components: space sensors, launch of effectors, national integrations, testing, and certification.
Some of Leonardo’s integrated defense capabilities have already been publicly demonstrated in allied exercises. For example, during the Formidable Shield 2025 exercise (North Sea, May 2025), the Italian Navy deployed air defense and anti-missile systems based on Leonardo technologies, confirming their ability to operate in multi-platform mode.
Expected impacts for Europe and collective defense
Towards European strategic autonomy
With Michelangelo Dome, Italy is affirming its ambition to offer a European defense solution against modern threats. By relying on national, modular, and NATO-compatible technologies, it aims to contribute to the continent’s strategic autonomy.
This type of system could enable states without advanced air forces or costly surface-to-air systems to acquire effective protection simply by integrating into a pan-European network.
A response to the challenges of modern warfare
Faced with the explosion of drone technologies, the return of hypersonic threats, and the proliferation of attack vectors—missiles, cyberattacks, drones, maritime threats—Michelangelo Dome represents a paradigm shift: it is no longer a siloed system but a dynamic, responsive, connected defense platform.
It offers the ability to anticipate threats, optimally distribute effectors, and respond to massive coordinated attacks. For vulnerable states or strategic infrastructure, this could be a game changer.
An accelerator for European cooperation
The open and interoperable nature of the system makes it a potential basis for pan-European air defense. In a context where the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) and other collective defense projects are progressing, Michelangelo could serve as an industrial and technical backbone.
This is prompting states to consider shared architectures with distributed responsibilities, technology-interoperability standardization, and budget synergies, rather than isolated purchases.
Limitations, challenges, and questions
Despite its promise, Michelangelo Dome is not an immediate panacea. Several challenges remain:
- Full implementation depends on the installation of a constellation of sensors, radars, satellites, and effectors—a long, costly, and complex process.
- Its actual effectiveness against multiple, coordinated threats—massive swarms of drones + hypersonic missiles + combined cyberattacks—will have to be validated in exercises or real-world conditions.
- Interoperability, despite openness, can pose problems: each country has different systems, doctrines, and rules of engagement. Harmonizing all of this is no trivial matter.
- The use of artificial intelligence for real-time decision-making raises questions of sovereignty, reliability, control, and accountability. Response times are short, but the margin for error must remain very low.
- Finally, the overall cost — development, deployment, maintenance — remains high. Not all states will have the means to participate, which may widen divisions within Europe.
Towards a new era of European defense
Michelangelo Dome embodies the desire to rethink air defense in the 21st century: a global, connected, multi-domain shield capable of responding to varied and complex threats. For now, it is an ambitious and credible project that relies on innovation, technology, and cooperation.
If Europe can take advantage of this architecture—by pooling resources and doctrine, investing in research, and ensuring the sovereignty of its systems—Michelangelo could lay the foundations for a true European shield. Otherwise, it will remain just one promising concept among many.
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