The plan Rearm Europepresented on March 4 by the European Commission e approved on March 6 by the European Council of the heads of state and government gathered in extraordinary session in Brussels, it is a consequence of the fact that the European Union – including Italy – can no longer rely on the United States for its defense after the settlement of Donald Trump. The plan includes a package of financial incentives of at least 800 billion euros to encourage expenses in the defense sector Member States and, to a lesser extent, to strengthen coordination and community initiatives in this field. How will Italy move in this scenario?
The Italian budget in defense
At the moment Our country spends 1.57% of its GDP for the defensebut within the plan Rearm Europe It could almost double this percentage in the coming years. In figures, this would mean reaching by 2027 to approx 65 billion euros per year compared to the current 33.5: An important point is how the government will decide to use these resources. At the moment Italy spends the 59% of its defense budget for the salaries of the staff of the Armed Forcesagainst 39% of France, 30% in Germany, 28% of the United Kingdom and 25% of the United States. This means that The actual figure then used in technological research and in the renewal of the arsenals is very far from the current 33.5 billion. Despite this, several officers of the General Staff have pointed out that the staff of the Armed Forces is undersized with respect to operational needs, also for the very unbalanced relationship between officers and simple soldiers.
How many soldiers the Italian army has: the staff in the armed forces
At this moment, in fact, theItalian army has been composed for just under 100,000 unitsbetween military and civil personnel, the Navy of approximately 30,000 and theAir Force for just under 37,000. These are added the approximately 108,000 men and women of the Carabinieri, who has been an autonomous armed force since 2000. Although these figures have seemed sufficient to date to guarantee a role in various international peacekeeping missions to date, such as the one ended in Afghanistan and those still in progress in Lebanon and Kosovo, the new scenario has changed the perspective. For example, the Army Chief of Staff, Carmine Masiello, highlighted during an audition in Parliament last January the need to strengthen the army staff. Commenting on Law 119 of 2022 and Legislative Decree 185 of 2023, which have reversed a reduction trend of the organization ongoing for years, Masiello has however stressed that in the event of a high intensity conflict such as the one in progress in Ukraine for 3 years At least 40 and 45,000 more units would be needed for the army alone. In this way we would come to a force between 133 and 138,000 soldier soldiers. Even more drastic was in March 2024 the former chief of staff of the defense and Admiral Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who during a hearing in Parliament defined the threshold of 170,000 effective in the Italian armed forces as “to the limit of survival”.
The situation of the Navy
Less drastic, even if only as regards the navy, has been in recent days theAdmiral Enrico CredentinoChief of Staff of the Navy. According to Credentino, the Navy can still live up to its task for the next 3 or 4 years, but not in the case of an extended conflict. As the admiral pointed out, the marinas of France and Great Britain, with the same ships, have a staff of 10,000 higher than Italy. For this reason, he hoped for an aUmbo of the staff at 39,000 units, 9,000 more than the current.
The response of the Italian government
To respond to the concerns of the major states, the Ministry of Defense has announced that different measures are under discussion. Many newspapers have hypothesized the creation of an operational reserve of about 40,000 men and women trained to be used in case of prolonged conflict or crisis such as floods, earthquakes and other calamities. Others claim that they are also discussing an increase of more than a third of the Italian defensive capacity in the long run, reaching About 135 thousand ordinary soldiers over the period of five/eight years. At the moment, however, the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto He denied these reconstructions by writing on the social network X that “the consistency of the armed forces is set by a law. I have no problem saying, as I have already said several times that that model is now inadequate and must be changed. It will be done in parliament. But, in my opinion, within a much wider measure than a simple increase in organic, which addresses all the themes connected to the defense and safety of a nation “.
