Italy ditches Israeli anti-drone technology for Rome airport

The project is taking place amid concerns in the European Union and beyond regarding the use of attack drones by Russia and Iran.

By JNS

An Italian court last week invalidated a contract for supplying Rome’s main airport with Israeli anti-drone technology, citing bureaucratic problems with using military equipment at a civilian facility.

The Council of State, Italy’s highest administrative court, on Tuesday ruled that the contract for supplying the anti-drone system at Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport will go to ELT, an Italian contractor, instead of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which is the chief developer of the Iron Dome projectile interception system.

For the Rome airport tender, Rafael partnered with the Italian contractor Altintech.

ELT, which was a contender for the contract, in 2022 petitioned a lower court to block the Israeli competitor, arguing theirs was military equipment that fell outside of the civilian category of equipment sought by the government company responsible for the airport, Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported.

The lower court, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, rejected the petition, but ELT appealed, and the Council of State accepted the appeal and overturned the Lazio court’s ruling, according to the report.

“Defense experts classified [the system] as a military radar based on its electrical power supply, operating temperature, operating frequency, its status … and its registration with the National Registry of Defense Companies as armaments material,” the newspaper quoted from the Council of State’s ruling.

ADR, the entity buying the defense system, wrote in a statement:

“Although the Council of State annulled the contract, it also recognized the complexity and novelty of the legal issues involved. ADR will fully comply with the ruling within the time frame set by the Council of State while ensuring that surveillance and security at the airport continue without interruption, as required by the judgment.”

The project is taking place amid concerns in the European Union and beyond regarding the use of attack drones by Russia and Iran.

Last week, an attack drone carrying explosives was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, German officials said.

The drone was found near a Ukrainian aircraft loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Eurocontrol, a pan-European civil-military organization dedicated to supporting aviation, documented a sharp increase in drone-related disruptions around airports in 2025.

The group’s 2024 operational report does not identify Russian drone incursions as a major cause of delays.

The year 2025 saw one Russian incursion into Polish airspace and many other unidentified incursions, including in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Lithuania, and Spain.

Israel and Italy have longstanding defense ties, including reciprocal aircraft and missile purchases over the past decade, but the relationship has cooled since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas’s attack on Israel triggered a regional war.

Italy suspended the automatic renewal of its bilateral defense cooperation agreement in April, and no major new bilateral defense procurement deals have been announced since.