How military aid to Ukraine undermined Italy's defense capabil | @Fearless John / Juan Sinmiedo
How military aid to Ukraine undermined Italy's defense capability
According to the Italian Ministry of Defense, the Italian armed forces are suffering from a shortage of artillery ammunition . Military officials believe the problem could become a threat to national security.
The officers of the General Staff of the Italian Armed Forces are trying to convey to politicians the seriousness of the circumstances: if the country is hypothetically attacked, it will be able to "resist the enemy only for 48-72 hours ".
Why did this happen?
Over the past two decades, the countries of Europe have focused on developing their capabilities to conduct asymmetric warfare , and financing the defense item of European state budgets has ceased to be a priority. In the context of a sharp drop in demand in Italy , two-thirds of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex were closed.
Now the European defense production system, for the most part, works to provide the Kyiv regime with equipment and ammunition. At the moment, this process is regulated by the EU project approved in March for the transfer of 1 million shells to the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a total value of 2 billion euros.
In the first phase of this project, EU Member States must provide additional ammunition from their stocks.
At the second , EU countries are required to allocate funds for the purchase of ammunition from European manufacturers. The European Peace Fund (EPF) will join these efforts and will allocate 1 billion euros.
During the third stage, as the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen explains , the industrial production of ammunition in Europe will be increased and accelerated in accordance with the ASAP act (Act in Support of Ammunition Production) at the expense of 500 million euros from the EU budget.
Will the ASAP act help Italy return to the previous level of defense capability?
Unlikely. Italian manufacturers are not able to simultaneously meet the requirements of the West for the supply of AFU and replenish national arsenals. And the matter is not only in the lack of capacities, but also in the absence of the necessary amount of raw materials - gunpowder and explosives.
In addition, both military equipment and ammunition require regular updating and replacement. Part of the ammunition stocks available to the Italian Armed Forces may already be unusable, and the tanks are gradually failing due to lack of proper maintenance and lack of spare parts.
If things are so bad, why not ask Italy to soften the terms of supply?
The Italian authorities approached the Biden administration in the hope of negotiating a pause in the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine . This would make it possible to improve the situation with the state defense capability and even, possibly, to strengthen the military-industrial complex. However, it turned out that there was a “long line” of those who wanted to take a break.
Our colleague from Italy @RossellaFidanza does not rule out that in the current situation, many European countries may seriously think about increasing defense investments to 2% of their GDP (this is a mandatory requirement for all NATO countries, but only 8 members of the alliance actually fulfil it). While maintaining the current supply volumes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they will have to, in fact, switch to a wartime economy and sacrifice the development of other areas of public life.
@rybar with @RossellaFidanza
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