“Lombardy aerospace companies have always been present, playing a leading role, in all the historical phases of aeronautics. We have contributed to building at least one piece of every milestone in the history of flight in all its derivations: rotary wing, fixed wing, space. Today one of the challenges is that of the transition to the next generations of aeronautics systems. Our know-how is ready to collect it, we are increasing our skills by repositioning them on the latest development trajectories. However, constant dialogue is needed with the protagonists of this transformation. This is why days like these are of fundamental importance when manufacturing companies and the heads of the bodies that dictate the rules of flight talk to each other, to give life to a concrete and profitable comparison, where knowledge and vision meet to design new enabling technologies for aircraft of the future”. Thus the President of the Lombardy Aerospace Cluster, Angelo Vallerani, during the meeting with the Director of the Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness Directorate (DAAA), Chief Inspector General Giuseppe Lupoli . An event organized in the Gallarate headquarters of the Union of Industrialists of the Province of Varese, which represented a moment of discussion between the Directorate of Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness of Segredifesa and the member companies of the Cluster interested in examining in depth the aspects related to procurement of tools and technologies in the aeronautical and aerospace fields.

The table, around which 26 companies gathered for a total of around 40 people including managers and entrepreneurs, saw a double positive outcome. On the one hand, the sharing of the most relevant initiatives and activities carried out by the Lombardy aerospace industry, with the description of the technologies, projects and skills that companies can deploy. On the other hand, the presentation, by the Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness Directorate, of the major procurement programs of interest to Defense and the acquisition methods and procedures adopted by the Secretariat of Defense and National Armaments Directorate.

“This meeting with the Lombard Industrial Technological District, for which I thank President Vallerani who strongly wanted it, is the first after the severe pandemic emergency that affected us and will be followed by further meetings also with the other Technological Districts of the country. These are activities, as underlined several times by the Secretary General of Defense and National Director of Armaments, Army Corps General Luciano Portolano , which aim to represent an increasingly close moment of sharing between large, small and medium-sized national companies, the their future programs and the problems needed to achieve them, with the numerous opportunities offered by the Defense sector. A necessary synthesis aimed both at satisfying national operational and training requirements and at simultaneously raising the technological level of the industrial world and the country. Together we contribute to maintaining Italian excellence in the global aerospace field”, declared DAAA Director, Giuseppe Lupoli.

The event was also an opportunity to present the Aerospace Matchmaking Interceptor (AMI) Platform that the Lombardy Aerospace Cluster is developing within a project made available to the National Aerospace Technology Cluster. It is a platform that has the peculiarity of analyzing companies under three different components: products, technologies and services. The result of research by potential customers and suppliers, as well as by the academic and research world, can therefore go to such a specific level as to be able to intercept very detailed needs of the market. This is how through tree connections, based on technologies and productions, it is possible to identify, among the profiled companies, the right partner for flight development projects. “Research which, obviously, can also be easily intercepted by the programming bodies of the Defense sector – commented President Vallerani -. This is an interesting opportunity for visibility also and above all for small and medium-sized businesses, with vertical and niche skills”.