What is needed for the Italian defense according to General Vecciarelli
What General Enzo Vecciarelli, Chief of the Defense Staff, heard in the Defense Committee of the Chamber and Senate said to present the 2020-2022 Dpp
"The resources assigned to defense are insufficient".
This is what the Chief of Defense Staff, General Enzo Vecciarelli reiterated, during a hearing at the joint Defense Committees of the Chamber and Senate to illustrate the multiannual Defense Program Document for the three-year period 2020-2022.
At the moment the defense budget / GDP ratio stands at 1.21% in Italy, far from the 2% hoped for by NATO and 1.58% of the average for European countries.
Without forgetting that today's Mediterranean has become a multivectoral area of increasing complexity.
"For this reason, never more than now, a profound revision of the military instrument is necessary" underlined the director of Rid Pietro Batacchi, commenting on the hearing of Vecciarelli.
All the details.
THE ORDINARY BUDGET OF THE DEFENSE
"The ordinary defense budget amounts to 22.9 billion euros, a volume which, after subtracting the territorial security function performed by the Carabinieri, is reduced to 15.3 billion euros", explained Vecciarelli. "Broken down into the classic spending sectors: personnel (10.36 billion), business (2.14 billion), investment (2.81 billion)".
"From an integrated budget perspective, these volumes are associated with the resources of the Mise and the financing of international peacekeeping missions that partially mitigate budgetary problems, bringing the total resources actually available for the preparation of the military instrument to about 20 billion of Euro. Split between personnel (11.3 billion), business (2.9 billion) and this year 5.8 billion euros for investment ".
COMMITMENT TO NATO
With the resources allocated for the three-year period, Italy is still far from the target of 2% of GDP destined for defense established by NATO.
"The document also grasps the opportunity to decline the defense budget in a NATO key, with a clear reference to the commitments undertaken within the Atlantic alliance and which still show a significant misalignment between the 2% target in terms of Defense budget / GDP ratio compared to the last official survey at the end of the year 2019 which stood at 1.21% ". The head of Smd stressed.
INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES
"In the face of the current threat to global security and the increase in crises and conflicts in the areas of direct interest of our country, the state of health of the military instrument and the related level of readiness, efficiency and interoperability, today present significant general problems with consequent effects on the overall effectiveness ".
For Vecciarelli “it is a question of organizational problems, of availability of personnel, but above all of inadequacy of the means and systems available. The insufficiency of the overall resources assigned to Defense determines an imbalance in the distribution of expenditure to the detriment of sectors functional to operations ".
WARRANTY PLANNING REQUIRED
"It is therefore necessary to make prudent choices that exploit the limited resources available, giving a decisive boost to the integration of the armed forces". Therefore, for the planning of the military instrument, the head of the SMD dealt with the integrated operational model of reference (Moir), which “today in the light of the current financial framework available is incompatible”. In fact, from the financial point of view, this model required "140 billion euros additional to the ordinary budget in fifteen years".
Given the economic situation, the Defense has realigned the defense budget target to that of the other NATO member countries equal to 1.58% of GDP. And here we have privileged a "guarantee planning" based on "a privileged integrated joint vision".
RE-ORIENTATION OF EXPENDITURE
"Unrealistic to achieve the 2% target in the budget / GDP ratio in the short term – underlined the general – it is essential that the Defense makes a change of paradigm, functional to maintaining an adequate relevance of the country in the current geo-strategic framework , through a reorientation of spending ".
START 40 MAJOR COMPANIES
"In the three-year period 2020/2022 40 major companies will be launched, using both the resources provided by the chapters required by the ordinary defense budget and that of investment funds". “Classified – explained General Vecciarelli – in funded programs, that is, already operating, and in further needs to be financed”.
INVESTMENTS IN CYBER AND SPACE DOMAINS
Considering the contemporary context in tumultuous technological transformation, "already in the near future we will have to operate through more streamlined, synergistic organizational structures, made more efficient by reticular working methods, adopting more agile operational processes".
“We started a Space Operations Command without any investment, this is a big gap. If we think that France has put in 4 billion euros and the US 20 billion dollars. This is a sector in which Italy cannot waste time ”.
The general then reiterated the importance of “urgent investments in the new cyber space domains, in robotics, in big data in artificial intelligence. Areas of priority enhancement that we intend to pursue without delay ".
A NEW OPERATING COMMAND NEEDED
For an increasingly integrated defense strategy, "in the space of a couple of years a new operational command will be created with the function of merging all the information arriving from the five domains and integrating it with the outside world as well."
ANOTHER NAVAL LAW?
Finally, to Senator Pucciarelli (Lega) who asked if the model of the 2014 naval law is replicable, General Vecciarelli replied "to allocate funds for the defense" rather than promulgating a law for the single armed force.
"The naval law was far-sighted and saved the Navy in a moment of acute crisis," Vecciarelli specified. “If we had substantial budgets, we could also envisage specific sectoral laws. In the meantime, from the analysis of the sector, it emerged that of the three armed forces the one that would need an ad hoc law is the army, certainly not the navy, nor the air force ”.
GROWING CRITICALITIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
For Vecciarelli "the results achieved over time by our unique ability to mediate effectively in the Mediterranean area have been affected in the last period by a large number of international competitors".
The latter in fact, "determined to regain positions and roles of reference in the areas traditionally of our privileged influence, have almost overturned the game that saw us in clear advantage in bilateral relations with the countries of that part of the world".
In particular, today's Mediterranean has become a multivectoral area of increasing complexity, where competition between states is more marked, arousing justified concern.
DEFENSE REFORM NEEDED
"For this reason, never as now, or in an international context increasingly characterized by" super-competition "and so-called" peer "or near-peer scenarios", commented on the columns of Rid , the director Pietro Batacchi, "a in-depth revision of the military instrument ".
According to Batacchi, the defense reform should include among other things: “transformation of the Supreme Defense Council into the National Security Council; development of a national security strategy by the government; staff renewal and creation of an operational reserve to be used in low-intensity foreign theaters and for emergencies on the national territory; remodeling of the operational component of the Army; multi-year law on investments to give certainty to procurement and planning by companies ".
THE QUESTION OF THE F-35B BETWEEN AM AND MM
According to the director of Rid , the defense reform should also include "synergies at joint level on some capabilities, in particular as regards the F-35B component".
We recall in fact that in Italy there is a clash between the Air Force and the Navy for the assignment of the F-35Bs destined for our country.
For Batacchi, "this component should be based on a single base (Amendola), in such a way as to make logistical support, virtual training and operational doctrines a common factor, and have 30 aircraft (15 of the MM and 15 of the AM) with rotary control between AM and MM. At the same time the 15 aircraft of the AM should be able to operate on the 2 aircraft carriers of the Navy, with pilots trained and qualified accordingly, while the 15 aircraft of the MM should "go" to the ground if circumstances require it. In cases of high-intensity contingency, therefore, we will be able to have about twenty F-35Bs capable of operating both from "short runways" and heliports, as from the 2 aircraft carriers ".
NO TO THE INCREASE OF THE STAFF
In conclusion, Batacchi does not share ”the idea that is being claimed to derogate from Di Paola and increase the staff. This would only further increase personnel expenses and further unbalance the defense budget. We don't need it. What is needed, on the other hand, is a remodeling of the operational component, in particular of the Army, and the creation of a real Reserve that can be spent in low-intensity theaters and on the national territory ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cosa-serve-alla-difesa-italiana-secondo-il-generale-vecciarelli/ on Mon, 16 Nov 2020 13:20:45 +0000.