Italy’s Leonardo is set to unveil a new type of air-defence technology designed to facilitate the creation of Dome-style missile shields, as European countries race to strengthen their military protection against Russia.

Chief executive Roberto Cingolani on Thursday will present advanced plans for its “Michelangelo Dome”, an artificial intelligence-based system that can connect different equipment and platforms to protect countries from air threats in a similar way to Israel’s Iron Dome.

People familiar with Leonardo’s plans, unveiled to top Italian army officials earlier this week, said the system was based on software which was not linked to a single military platform so any country could use it for its own existing vehicles, structures and systems.