LBA Systems, to be based in Italy, will be dedicated to the design, development, and production of unmanned aerial systems.
Announced at the Paris Air Show, Italian based aerospace giant Leonardo has strengthened its ties to the Turkish company Baykar, famous for its Bayraktar series of unmanned aircraft, with an all new 50:50 partnership in joint venture LBA Systems. The joint company follows on from a memorandum of understanding which was signed between Leonardo and Baykar in Rome in March 2025.
LBA Systems will draw upon Baykar’s experience with unmanned platforms with the company taking the lead on the physical design of future platforms, while Leonardo will leverage its expertise in electronics and mission systems to outfit Baykar’s designs with the latest technologies. This will include manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) and swarm capabilities.
Turkey’s drone firm Baykar and Italian defense firm Leonardo established a new joint venture; LBA Systems.
At the Paris Air Show, Bayraktar TB3 and AKINCI high altitude drone are exhibited with the logo of the newly established LBA Systems company. pic.twitter.com/BwwyggmKjK
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) June 15, 2025
Baykar has been in business since the 1980s, but began entering the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market in the 21st century. The company’s most successful design to date, the Bayraktar TB2, earned them international fame following notable successes in the service of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine.
🇺🇦⚓️ Ukrainian Navy’s Bayraktar TB2 destroyed a Russian military boat in Kherson region. pic.twitter.com/7xr3vF9Rku
— MAKS 25 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) June 24, 2025
Across its various arms and subsidiaries, Leonardo has made headway into the UAV market but hasn’t yet serially produced any platforms in the medium altitude long endurance (MALE) category served by the TB2 (and other options like the MQ-9 Reaper). It is a partner in the multinational Eurodrone program, but, though it has been ordered by several nations, this has yet to produce a flying prototype.
Leonardo will hope to use Baykar’s expertise in this area to increase its market share for unmanned systems. Baykar, meanwhile, can take advantage of Leonardo’s strong foundations in Western European nations like Italy and the United Kingdom to bring its products to a wider market.
Along with electronics and mission systems, Leonardo is offering its extensive experience with certification processes across Europe and beyond to ease the journey into service for any future types.
“We firmly believe that technological cooperation is a powerful means to address the unprecedented challenges facing the defense sector,” said Leonardo CEO, Roberto Cingolani. He added that “integrating Leonardo’s experience in certification and integrated multi-domain technologies with Baykar’s world-class unmanned platforms can truly provide a meaningful boost in seizing opportunities both across Europe and on the global stage.”
Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman and CTO of Baykar Technologies, commented “At Baykar, we have always believed that the future of aerospace lies in bold ideas and boundary-breaking innovation. As the world’s leading developer and exporter of UAVs, we’ve turned that belief into reality on the field. This partnership with Leonardo—a company with world-class expertise in C4I systems and complementary capabilities in aviation—is more than a collaboration; it’s a catalyst for what’s next. Together, we are building a new generation of unmanned systems that are not only intelligent and mission-ready but designed with ethics and interoperability at their core.”
He further emphasised his company’s desire to expand to new markets, and strengthen its position as a noted specialist in the unmanned aviation sector: “This partnership reflects Baykar’s long-term strategy of deepening international cooperation and expanding our role as a global innovator in high-impact, autonomous defense technologies.”
Piaggio acquisition
This is notably a second step for Baykar towards integrating itself with the wider European market, and Italy in particular. In 2024, Baykar made a successful bid to acquire Italian aerospace firm Piaggio. The company has faced several years of financial struggle and was eventually put up for sale in 2020.
Baykar CEO, Haluk Bayraktar, hinted that Piaggio as an individual brand will continue into the future as Baykar looks to preserve the company’s historical identity. The new owners will seek to increase Piaggio’s production capacity and provide employment opportunities in Italy.
Piaggio is most well-known today for its P.180 Avanti executive transport, which is in service with the Italian military, but additionally marketed an unmanned variant designated P.1HH Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a MALE UAV, like the TB2, but importantly is a much larger design with an increased payload, higher service ceiling, and faster operating speed. Both designs have advantages depending on the mission required, so would not necessarily compete with each other.
An improved version, the P.2HH, was revealed in 2018 but has yet to be seen. Baykar may use their expertise in the field to improve upon the P.1HH and P.2HH designs further, and with its marketing prowess and existing customer base could finally get the project fully off the ground.
The first MoU
Leonardo and Baykar Technologies signed a first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Mar. 6, 2025, during a ceremony in Rome. This MoU, based on the industrial synergies and complementarities of Leonardo and Baykar in the unmanned sector, was the first step towards the new Joint Venture, LBA Systems.
This partnership will leverage Baykar’s industry-leading unmanned platforms, which have demonstrated operational effectiveness across various global markets, and Leonardo’s expertise in mission systems, payload design, and related aerospace certification in Europe. Interestingly, the collaboration will also extend into the field of space technologies.
The European market for the next ten years, covering unmanned fighters, armed surveillance drones, and deep strike drones, is projected to reach $ 100 billion, said the two companies. Thanks to the new joint venture, Leonardo and Baykar will jointly pursue opportunities in both the European and international markets, also capitalizing on additional synergies in the space sector.
Right now, it seems that the focus of the collaboration will be the Bayraktar Akinci UCAV. Baykar’s CEO says Akinki was chosen as the platform already includes some unspecified Leonardo technologies, and this segment is perceived to be the biggest gap in the European market.
