“‘Space and drones are among our key sectors; we are looking at targeted acquisitions’”
Benigni, CEO of Elt Group, outlines the outlook against the backdrop of hybrid wars. “M&A is not good for competitiveness. We are an attractive prospect, but we remain an independent company.”
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – The focus is on the Gulf States and South-East Asia; key sectors include space and drones; targeted acquisitions of niche companies or promising start-ups are planned. Outlining the future prospects for the Elt Group – which has been active in electronic defence and the operational management of the electromagnetic spectrum for over 75 years – is Domitilla Benigni, CEO and COO (Chief Operating Officer) of the electronic defence group, ‘which began as a medium-sized stand-alone company’. The group would be ‘theoretically attractive’ on the market but has a ‘solid and stable’ shareholder base. At a European level, Benigni believes that M&A would not be good for competitiveness. “Having,” she explains to DigitEconomy.24, in collaboration with Digit’Ed, “4–5 groups in Europe is good for the system.” As for the business, in the current geopolitical context, the company can “capitalise on the advantage of being able to integrate traditional electronic defence technology” with the use of cybersecurity and AI. However, as Benigni – who is also president of Women4cyber Italia – explains, this is always subject to scenarios where the final decision rests with a man.
How is your business changing in the face of the current challenging geopolitical climate?
We are witnessing an evolution across all scenarios, driven not only by changes in the context but also by technology. On the one hand, conflicts are no longer traditional but hybrid, as they combine traditional operational missions with new technologies, making extensive use of cyber security. On the other hand, technology is no longer solely military or solely civilian, given that military threats intersect with civilian ones. The technology used to manage them is, in fact, becoming dual-use, with the result that we are moving towards increasingly interconnected domains in which, as far as we are concerned, we can capitalise on the advantage of being able to integrate traditional technology linked to electronic defence – which has been in our DNA for 75 years now – with the use of cyber security and Artificial Intelligence. Everything, in fact, passes through the electromagnetic spectrum: communications, command and control systems, sensors, drones, and the flow of information. Having access to data and being able to interpret it extremely quickly, in real time, is what enables us today to ‘gain an advantage’ in terms of information.
Into which new sectors are you expanding?
Our products already cover avionics, ground-based systems and naval applications – including underwater systems – and we have recently been expanding into the space sector and the drone domain. Drones represent both a threat and an opportunity because they are a platform; with this in mind, we are developing sensors to be fitted on drones for intelligence operations. As regards the threat posed by remotely piloted aircraft, I would like to point out that for over 10 years we have had a well-established capability in systems to counter malicious drones, which represent an increasingly insidious threat,
