The Defense approach, oriented towards multidomain and overcoming technological asymmetries, involves targeted investments in all sectors. Just to give some examples: 426 million for space systems (Sicral 3 and orbital surveillance), 3.53 billion for land modernization, 2.53 billion for maritime vehicles, 4.55 billion for air ones. 1.14 billion are allocated to the macro-sector of command and control, digitalisation and information structures, 340 million to Research and Development, and 1.32 billion to infrastructural assets. The most significant item, 5.44 billion, concerns the maintenance of the operational conditions of the Armed Forces, the cornerstone of the sustainability of the military instrument.
Minister Crosetto underlined the need to align the timing of the industrial system with the objectives of national security. What consequences does this deviation have? Can you give us some concrete cases?
The ambitious capacity recovery plan of the Armed Forces, after a long period of disinvestment, brings with it the need to strengthen the defense industrial base, increasing national production capacity, rebuilding essential production lines – such as those relating to nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin – and modernizing the plants of the Defense Industries Agency. It is an effort aimed at guaranteeing strategic autonomy, logistical resilience and continuity of supplies, indispensable conditions to support prolonged operations and to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains in sensitive sectors.
Organic node: according to Minister Crosetto, the Armed Forces today are not fully equipped to guarantee an adequate level of protection and deterrence. There is talk of 160 thousand personnel, of which 10-15 thousand new units to be trained in the field of new technologies and artificial intelligence against the hybrid war already underway: of these five thousand would only be needed in the cyber sector, plus the new forms of reserve. What is your opinion on the matter?
The personnel must be commensurate with the military capabilities to be expressed. In this perspective, the 2026 Budget Law provides for an initial increase of 10 thousand units. Added to this is the concept of forces in reserve, divided into two components: “operational in service or on leave” and “volunteer on a specialist and territorial basis”. The objective is to rebalance the organic resources in all sectors, in particular, in this historical moment, in that of cyber security, enhancing human skills, the true center of gravity of Defence. The increase in personnel will be the result of a systematic process, which will examine the overall needs deriving from the defense of the territory and of Italy’s vital and strategic interests and from the commitments undertaken within the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.
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