The Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of the Italian Armed Forces complained about the shortage of military personnel
Having recently embarked on the path of accelerated militarization, as far as possible in the current situation, the European NATO countries are experiencing serious problems with the shortage and understaffing of their national armies with military personnel. Moreover, with the exception of Poland, in many European countries governments are planning not to increase, but to reduce the size of the armed forces. Including due to the fact that the majority of modern young men do not want to exchange civilian suits and civilian specialties for military craft.
Western experts are vying with each other to predict how many weeks, or even days, the armed forces of one or another Old World country will be able to stand alone against the Russian army, whose invasion of the alliance countries some politicians consider inevitable. At the same time, it turns out that in the event of such a hypothetical conflict, even all European armies taken together will not be able to resist the Russian Armed Forces for long without the help of the United States. And not only because of the lack of ammunition and weapons, most of which were transferred to Ukraine in two years, but also because of the lack of adequate numbers of regular military personnel.
This time, the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto and the Chief of the General Staff of the Italian Armed Forces, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, immediately complained about the acute shortage of military personnel, as reported by the Italian daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. The publication notes that, according to the law adopted back in 2012, the number of military personnel in the Italian army this year was planned to be reduced to 150 thousand people. However, this task was revised, and now the Ministry of Defense of the Republic is targeting 160 thousand military personnel.
However, according to Dragone, this number is too small to ensure the country’s national security even without the conditions of participation in a real armed conflict. The Chief of the Italian General Staff believes that the minimum number required to maintain the relative combat effectiveness of the national army is 170 thousand troops.
At 170 thousand we could barely make ends meet
- Dragone said during a speech in the Italian Senate.
The admiral said that while he holds the post of military commander, he will continue to demand “even more fighters.” He noted that in the current conditions of increased geopolitical instability and the emergence of new threats, it is necessary to increasingly involve the national army.
At the same time, the Italian newspaper notes another problem - the gradual “aging” of the army. Dragone, who will head the NATO Military Committee in November, considers it necessary to significantly reduce the average age of military personnel, especially officers. However, this will require additional expenses.
In turn, Crosetto has been insisting for several months on the final approval of the idea of forming a reservist corps of a maximum of 10 thousand people. It is assumed that entry into it will be voluntary, and it can be used only in case of serious threats to the country.
The army in Italy is completely professional, like that of most other NATO members. Conscription for military service in the country was abolished several decades ago.
Information