Leonardo, this is how Rheinmetall relaunches the proposal for the terrestrial pole
What the CEO of Rheinmetall Italia Alessandro Ercolani said during the hearing at the Chamber's Defense Committee
The German Rheinmetall is positioned in the front row to respond to the challenge of renewing the land component and in particular to the segment of heavy and armored vehicles in our country.
“At an operational level, the DPP highlights how one of its main development trajectories is “the “lesson” coming from the current conflict situations, i.e. urgent modernization of the tank, ammunition and air defense components” began Alessandro Ercolani, CEO of Rheinmetall Italia. , at a hearing in the House Defense Committee on November 29.
In particular, “Italy finds itself having to relaunch the program for the reconstruction of the tracked fleet which has two components, a light one (Infantry Fighting Vehicle Ifv, one of the programs already budgeted in the DPP 2023-2025) to replace the Dardo, and a heavy one, the Main Battle Tank (Mbt), where already last year our country looked with interest at the opportunity to enter the Franco-German program [Mgcs ed.] to fit into a European context" Ercolani recalled.
Furthermore, the new Mbt and Aics will allow the reacquisition of industrial capacity in the sector which our country has seen weaken over the years.
Therefore, according to Rheinmetall's number one, "Italy has the need and opportunity to build a program that has a national identity" – and this cannot ignore Leonardo which, together with CNH Industrial, controls the Iveco-Oto consortium Melara (CIO), leader of the land armaments industry – but "within a European framework".
All the details.
TERRESTRIAL LAW KICKS OFF
In the 2023-2025 DPP, Defense has foreseen an allocation of 5.2 billion euros for the Aics (Armored Infantry Combat System) program of the Italian Army between now and 2037 against an overall requirement of 15 billion euros.
Thus begins the decade of the Army, with the Aics program which is in fact a "land law", an opportunity for growth for the national defense sector. “Here the AICS is worth more than twice the Naval Law,” of 2015, underlined just yesterday Pietro Batacchi, director of Rid .
RHEINMETALL'S PROPOSAL FOR THE TERRESTRIAL POLE
Thanks to the DPP and the "Terrestrial law", with the Mbt and Aics/Ifv programs, there is a unique opportunity for development and technology for Italy, ensuring, in collaboration with Germany, national identity – national production – in a project together with full European and NATO integration, reiterates the CEO of Rheinmetall at the hearing.
“We offer to build in Italy and together with the national champions of the Defense Industry the largest European land hub which will allow Italy to be a protagonist not only in the avionics and naval dimension but also in the land technological component” explained Ercolani.
“This means – continued the number one of Rheinmetall – creating jobs, enhancing the territories, the universities. New professional scenarios are opening up. Thousands of new jobs are expected. Imagine applying the coefficient 2.6 only to newly launched programs. It means unloading around 15 billion in jobs, opportunities and growth onto the territory."
On the other hand, the DPP itself is aware that Italy cannot afford to act alone – solely national armament programs are no longer manageable – unsustainable from a financial, industrial and development point of view with times for putting the assets into service incompatible with current needs.
LEONARDO'S POSITION
On the other hand, Leonardo also seems to be looking in this direction.
“Italy has important expertise in Oto Melara but also in the Iveco component with which we are partners in the consortium” recalled the general director of Leonardo, Lorenzo Mariani, last week in a hearing at the Defense Commission of the Chamber as part of the examination of the multiannual programmatic document for Defense for the three-year period 2023-2025.
In 2021, the former Finmeccanica group had put its land armaments subsidiary up for sale together with Wass, a sale that remained on stand-by. Meanwhile, the Defense has confirmed its intention to buy the Leopard 2 tanks, produced by the German Kmw and Rheimmetall (both had made an offer for the Leonardo subsidiary). Now the group led by Roberto Cingolani is aiming to involve Oto Melara in the program.
“It will probably be appropriate to have a collaboration at a European level because I don't think there is space for multiple platforms: we are looking for a decent collaboration both in terms of participation and technology and the financial support that comes from the DPP is an excellent viaticum” concluded Mariani.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/leonardo-ecco-come-rheinmetall-rilancia-la-proposta-per-il-polo-terrestre/ on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:44:44 +0000.