Italy Clears Baykar-Leonardo Drone Venture With NATO, EU Limits
By Bosphorus News Defense Desk
Italy has conditionally approved the Leonardo-Baykar drone joint venture, clearing a Türkiye-Italy defense industry project while placing the company's international activity inside a European and NATO-aligned framework.
The decision allows LBA Systems, the 50-50 joint venture between Italy's state-controlled defense group Leonardo and Türkiye's Baykar, to move forward in the unmanned aircraft systems market. Rome used its Golden Power rules to attach conditions to the approval, including limits on sales and further international development to countries politically aligned with Europe and NATO.
The approval was granted at an Italian cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 16, Reuters reported. Under the reported conditions, all technology used in the drones will be classified, adding a security layer to a project that gives Baykar a more formal route into Europe's defense market and gives Leonardo a Turkish partner with combat-proven unmanned aircraft experience.
Leonardo and Baykar have not issued separate public statements on the Italian government's conditional approval. Their existing company material confirms LBA Systems as an Italy-based joint venture, with each side holding 50 percent and a mandate to design, develop, manufacture and support unmanned aircraft systems.
The two companies announced the establishment of LBA Systems at the Paris Air Show in June 2025, after signing a memorandum of understanding in Rome in March 2025. Leonardo described the company as a new player in unmanned technologies, while Baykar said the venture would cover the full lifecycle of unmanned aerial systems, from design and development to production and maintenance.
The Italian conditions are the main news point. Rome is not treating the Baykar-Leonardo project as a standard industrial partnership, but as a defense technology file requiring state control over markets, technology protection and political alignment.
Italy's Golden Power rules allow the government to intervene in transactions involving strategic national interests. In this case, the mechanism does not block the Turkish-Italian venture, but it narrows the space in which the joint company can operate.
The approval keeps Baykar's European route open at a time when drone warfare has become a central procurement priority across NATO. Leonardo gains access to Turkish unmanned systems experience while keeping the joint venture anchored inside an Italian and European defense framework.
The conditions attached by Rome are the harder part of the story. Baykar can enter a major European industrial structure, but the project will operate under Italian controls over exports, technology handling and future expansion.
Sources: Reuters, Leonardo, Baykar, BBC Türkçe, Bosphorus News review and reporting.