Leonardo has announced a new partnership with UK materials scale-up Uplift360 aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience through the reuse of high-value defence materials.
The collaboration will see Leonardo leverage its expertise in defence platforms, certification and testing to support the integration of recycled composites into its UK manufacturing operations, while Uplift360 provides specialist capabilities in advanced composite recycling.
At the core of the partnership is a shared ambition to establish a circular, UK-based supply of carbon fibre derived from both production waste and end-of-life defence assets, reducing reliance on virgin materials and mitigating supply chain risk.
Driving circularity in defence manufacturing
For Leonardo, the move forms part of a broader strategy to embed circularity into its manufacturing model. The company is increasingly focused on securing access to critical raw materials through recycling, while reducing lifecycle costs and environmental impact.
The partnership will support the accreditation and qualification of regenerated composite materials for use across Leonardo’s aerospace, defence and security (AD&S) products, an essential step toward operational adoption. It also aligns with the UK’s Strategic Defence Review, which highlights the importance of resilient, sovereign supply chains and the need to reduce dependence on constrained global material sources.
“Our goal is to move beyond traditional end-of-life disposal models and create a genuinely circular approach to defence manufacturing.”
– Professor Simon Harwood, UK Capability Director at Leonardo.
From waste to high-value applications
The collaboration builds on an earlier joint project between the two companies, which successfully repurposed an end-of-life Leonardo helicopter rotor blade into a structural drone component.
Led by Leonardo’s Helicopters Technology and Innovation team in Yeovil, the initiative demonstrated the technical feasibility of transforming complex aerospace composites into new, high-performance defence applications using low-energy recycling processes.
Harwood added that combining Leonardo’s industrial capabilities with Uplift360’s technology will “reduce environmental impact, lower lifecycle costs and strengthen the UK’s sovereign access to critical materials.”
Scaling SME innovation
While Leonardo leads on industrialisation and integration, Uplift360 plays a supporting role in advancing the underlying recycling technology. The company is planning to scale its operations in 2026 with a pilot facility capable of processing up to seven tonnes of recycled carbon fibre annually—a step toward industrial-scale production.
The partnership also sits within Leonardo’s UK SME Collaboration Partner Programme, which is designed to help smaller firms overcome barriers to adoption and bring innovative technologies into defence manufacturing supply chains.
Uplift360 CEO Sam Staincliffe said the collaboration demonstrates how recycling can deliver both environmental and strategic benefits, transforming end-of-life defence assets into materials for future platforms.
As defence manufacturers face increasing pressure to balance sustainability with resilience, Leonardo’s approach signals a shift toward circular production models, where waste is not only reduced, but repositioned as a strategic resource.
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