June

We showcased our commitment to inclusion and diversity through many events throughout June, not least Pride Month, which was led by our network group run by LGBTQ+ employees and allies who have come together to support each other and their fellow employees. The Pride group ran activities and online drop-in sessions open for everyone at our UK sites to celebrate the month. We also took part in a webinar from Pride in Defence, a network we are proud to be part of, which looked at LGBTQ+ Inclusiveness in Defence and STEM.

We were delighted to mark International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) again this year, with Engineering & Projects Director, Paula Clarke, releasing a video version of In My Defence, a poem she first penned for a Women’s Engineering Society Student conference at the end of 2020. A number of Leonardo’s leading women engineers joined Paula to help recite the poem and show empathy for its powerful message.

Another of our fantastic network groups, Carers, arranged a week of celebration and awareness during Carers Week in June, with an online ‘Care for a Cuppa’ session and voices from the group being heard on our social media channels. We were also proud to announce our membership of Carers UK's business forum, Employers for Carers.

Later in the month, during Armed Forces Week, we showed our respect for our Armed Forces, including regulars, reserves, veterans and cadets, many of whom we count as colleagues. We were proud to fly the flag at our UK sites as we thanked them all for their service throughout the year.

Our STEM outreach continued despite the restrictions, with our ambassadors putting together a fantastic short film, ‘The Unseen World’, for Big Bang Digital. The film, narrated by Leonardo apprentices and graduates, took budding STEM enthusiasts on a mission to gather data, and learn about the technology being used to help preserve planet Earth. Meanwhile, we united with our colleagues globally for the Race to Space, a wellbeing, fitness and fundraising challenge. The challenge was an opportunity for our workforce to come together for a virtual and COVID-secure project, with the target of collectively travelling 46,000km (the distance from Earth to the Galileo Satellite Constellation and back) by walking, running, cycling, swimming or any other physical means, for one week in June. Thankfully, we made it back to Earth, smashing the target with a total of 88,039km travelled!

We were delighted to see the Typhoon Display Team back in action in June, marking the return of live shows with a dynamic new livery at Midlands Air Festival, as Leonardo sponsored the team once again

Finally, we took pride in the upgrade to eight of the original tranche of AW159 helicopters in the Republic of Korea, and the fact that our Miysis DIRCM was selected for VVIP Middle Eastern use.