# Leonardo S.p.A. The Italian aerospace, defense, and security conglomerate that is the corporate parent of [[Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC]] and the parent brand for the [[ELSAG ALPR Systems]] product line. Headquartered in Rome, Italy; the parent company was formerly known as **Finmeccanica** before the 2017 corporate rebranding to "Leonardo." The parent is publicly traded on Borsa Italiana under the ticker **LDO**, is controlled by the Italian state, and does direct defense business with Israel (see below). The corpus has no direct documentary contact with Leonardo S.p.A. — only the inference via its wholly-owned US subsidiary's contract with [[Arkansas State Police]]. The Term Contract 4600055190 lists the contracting party as "LEONARDO US CYBER AND SECURITY SOLUTIONS LLC" without naming the Italian parent. ## Corporate identity (Tier-2) The vendor's own About-page corporate self-description (primary public record, [Leonardo About — vendor self-description](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/leonardocompany-us.com/leonardo-about-us.md)) frames Leonardo S.p.A. as "a globally recognized leader in advanced technologies" with "a multi-faceted heritage comprised of ground-breaking innovations in aerospace, defense, and security." The vendor describes the parent as "a trusted long-term partner of choice for governments, institutions, and business customers, delivering cutting-edge and dual-use technologies that strengthen global security and protect people, territories, infrastructure, and cyber networks" (Tier-2 quote, leonardocompany-us.com/lpr/about-us, primary public record, [ELSAG / LPR About](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/leonardocompany-us.com/lpr-about-us.md)). ## US-subsidiary structure (Tier-2) Leonardo S.p.A. operates multiple US subsidiaries (primary public record, [Leonardo About](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/leonardocompany-us.com/leonardo-about-us.md)): - **[[Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC]]** — the LE-market subsidiary; ELSAG ALPR + Critical Communications product lines; contracting party on Arkansas State Term Contract 4600055190. Greensboro NC HQ + Brewster NY + Washington DC operations. - **Leonardo Helicopters** — rotary aircraft subsidiary. - **Leonardo-DRS** — defense electronic systems subsidiary; previously NYSE-listed under ticker DRS before the 2022 merger with RADA Electronic Industries. - **Leonardo Electronics US** — additional electronics subsidiary in the US footprint. The Leonardo S.p.A. US-presence is therefore a multi-subsidiary structure with the LE-market activity sitting specifically under Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC. ## Ownership and scale (Tier-2) Leonardo S.p.A. is controlled by the Italian state. Its own corporate fact sheet identifies the Italian **Ministry of Economy and Finance** as the largest shareholder (the published shareholder chart indicates a stake of roughly 30%, though that figure appears as a graphic in the source rather than as extractable text and is not quoted here as verbatim). The company reports that it "is listed on the Borsa Italiana Stock Exchange and, through its subsidiary Leonardo DRS, is also present on the US NASDAQ," with "around 90% of the institutional free float" international, 2023 consolidated revenues of "€15.3bn," and "over 53,000 employees worldwide" with "a significant industrial presence in Italy, the UK, Poland and the US" (primary public record, [Leonardo at a Glance](../../web%20archive/2026-06-07/leonardo.com/at-a-glance-shareholders-drs.md)). The same fact sheet lists Leonardo's stake in **Leonardo DRS** at "72.3%," confirming it as a majority-owned subsidiary. Leonardo DRS reached its NASDAQ listing through an Israeli acquisition. In June 2022, "Leonardo's … U.S.-based electronics unit, DRS, … agreed to buy Israel's RADA Electronic Industries … paving the way for the combined business to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange," with current RADA shareholders "taking a 19.5% stake in the combined business" and the merged DRS to be "listed on the Nasdaq and Tel Aviv stock exchanges" (Tier-3 reporting, [Reuters — Leonardo DRS / RADA merger](../../web%20archive/2026-06-07/reuters.com/leonardo-drs-rada-nasdaq-merger.md)). ## The Israel relationship (Tier-2) Leonardo's group has a documented direct defense relationship with the Israeli state. In July 2012 its subsidiary Alenia Aermacchi (then a Finmeccanica company) "signed a contract with Israeli Ministry of Defence to supply 30 M-346 advanced trainer aircraft," intended to "replace the A-4 Skyhawks currently in service … of the Israeli Air Force." The deal was "part of a larger Government-to-Government agreement between Israel and Italy" covering "aircraft, engines, maintenance, logistics, simulators and training" (primary public record, [Leonardo / Alenia Aermacchi — 30 M-346 to Israeli MoD](../../web%20archive/2026-06-07/leonardo.com/alenia-aermacchi-30-m346-israel-mod.md)). The release predates the 2017 Finmeccanica → Leonardo rename; the group that supplies ELSAG ALPR systems to the Arkansas State Police is the same group that sold trainer jets to the Israeli Air Force, and (through Leonardo DRS) merged with an Israeli defense-electronics firm to reach the NASDAQ. This bears directly on the [[Arkansas Act 710 of 2017 — Israel-Boycott Contract Certification|Act 710]] check already flagged below: Arkansas's anti-boycott statute asks a vendor to certify it does not boycott Israel, and Leonardo's group does substantial business with Israel. ## EU dual-use export framing (Tier-2) As an EU-headquartered maker of surveillance hardware, Leonardo's exports run under the European Union's dual-use regime. Regulation (EU) 2021/821 "set[s] up a Union regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items," defines "dual-use items" as those "which can be used for both civil and military purposes," and requires "an authorisation … for the export of dual-use items listed in Annex I" (primary public record, [EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2021/821](../../web%20archive/2026-06-07/eur-lex.europa.eu/regulation-2021-821-dual-use.md)). Whether any specific ELSAG ALPR product is an Annex-I-listed dual-use item is not established by this record; the regime is noted as the export-control framework that would govern such items if listed — the EU counterpart to the Israeli DECA regime that governs [[Cellebrite — Export Controls and Human-Rights Record|Cellebrite]]. ## Corporate-history chain to the Arkansas procurement The ELSAG product line that ASP procured traces through three corporate reorganizations under Leonardo S.p.A.'s ownership (primary public record, [Selex ES NCPA RFP 15-22 Response](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/omniapartners.com/selex-es-response-ncpa-rfp-15-22.md); vendor's own corporate-history paragraph in Tab 2 of the RFP response): - **August 2004** — Remington Arms and Leonardo (then Finmeccanica) formed a joint venture establishing **ELSAG North America**. - **2007** — Remington Arms sold its interest; ELSAG North America became a wholly-owned Leonardo subsidiary. - **January 1, 2014** — Leonardo combined ELSAG North America + Selex System Integrators + Selex Communications into **Selex ES, Inc.** (primary public record, [ELSAG / LPR About](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/leonardocompany-us.com/lpr-about-us.md), Tier-2 quote: *"In 2014, Leonardo S.p.A. combined three of its U.S. companies—ELSAG North America, Selex System Integrators, and Selex Communications—to form a subsidiary, Selex ES Inc., representing 100 years of U.S. based operations."*). - **2024** — Selex ES Inc. rebranded to **Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, Inc/LLC** (primary public record, [ELSAG / LPR About](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/leonardocompany-us.com/lpr-about-us.md), Tier-2 quote: *"In 2024, we evolved our subsidiary's identity from Selex ES Inc. to Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, Inc, a change that better reflects the synergy between our brand and the cutting-edge products we offer."*). The Arkansas State Term Contract (08/06/2024) uses the post-rebrand name; the prior NCPA RFP 15-22 response (03/21/2022) used the Selex ES Inc. name. The Selex ES NCPA RFP 15-22 response, dated 03/21/2022, contains the vendor's own corporate-history paragraph (Tier-2, verbatim): > *"In August 2004, Remington Arms and Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica), Italy's largest defense contractor formed a joint venture to foster license plate recognition technology use among US law enforcement agencies. ELSAG North America launched its Automatic License Plate Reader, the Mobile Plate Hunter-900® (MPH-900®), and sixteen years later has deployed over 21,000 cameras at over 4,500 agencies in 30 countries with a primary focus on North America. In 2007, Remington Arms sold their interest in the license plate reading business to Leonardo making ELSAG North America a fully owned subsidiary. On January 1, 2014, through reorganization by Leonardo, ELSAG North America joined Selex System Integrators, and Selex Communications to form the U.S. based international subsidiary of Leonardo, Selex ES, Inc."* Combined with the 2024 rebrand to Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, this establishes a complete corporate-lineage chain from ASP's contracting party back to the Italian parent. ## Roles in this corpus - **The ultimate corporate parent** of the [[Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC]] entity that contracts with Arkansas State Police. - **Structurally relevant to the Arkansas Act 710 of 2017 anti-BDS compliance check.** Leonardo's Italian parentage triggers Arkansas's foreign-vendor anti-BDS contract-certification requirement (the "Israel $1k" line on the ASP Purchase Tracking Form). Whether ASP / DPS obtained the required Leonardo certification is not visible in the OCR. See [[Arkansas Act 710 of 2017 — Israel-Boycott Contract Certification]] for the statute's certification requirements. ## Notes - **Ownership and scale are now anchored** to Leonardo's own "At a Glance" corporate fact sheet (Italian-state largest shareholder via the Ministry of Economy and Finance; 72.3% Leonardo DRS stake; €15.3bn 2023 revenues). The deeper Italian-language Borsa Italiana financial filings were still not retrieved this cycle (the exchange's disclosure portal is not reliably fetchable from US workstations); they would add granularity but are not load-bearing for the Arkansas-procurement documentary claims this corpus tracks. - **The 2017 Finmeccanica → Leonardo rebrand** is a top-of-corporate-tree event; the corpus's interest is downstream (at the operating-subsidiary level). The Selex ES NCPA RFP 15-22 response (from 2022) still uses "Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica)" as the parenthetical — confirming the rebrand was complete by 2022 in the vendor's own self-description. The 2012 M-346 release was issued under the Finmeccanica / Alenia Aermacchi names, the same group's earlier identity. - **Leonardo DRS** is the sister subsidiary that ties the group to Israel on the corporate-finance side: it reached its NASDAQ listing by merging with Israel's RADA Electronic Industries in 2022 (RADA shareholders taking 19.5%), and is dual-listed on the Nasdaq and Tel Aviv exchanges. Whether Leonardo DRS interacts with Arkansas's LE-tech procurement structures (HIDTA, OJP grants) is a future-research question not pursued this cycle.