ANDY NATIVI / GENOA
Study will form basis of defence reforms aimed at bringing forces into line with allies
After a series of delays the Italian defence ministry has issued a new edition of its so-called white book defence plan. Unlike the previous edition published in 1985, which dealt with the future of the Italian armed forces, this version concentrates on the current status and problems and the ongoing transformation of the services to match the new geopolitical environment.
The white book, which was due to be published at the end of January, also contains the guidelines that defence minister Antonio Martino and the government will use as defence reforms.
The first aim is to accelerate the end of compulsory service, which is planned for January 2007.Martino wants this date brought forward to December 2004.
To achieve the aim, the recruitment of professional soldiers and short-term volunteers is to be improved and a package of benefits is to be approved.
Martino is a strong believer in "more teeth, less tail" and is aiming for 65-70% of personnel to be serving in frontline units and supporting arms and 30% in central staffs, and territorial structures and bodies. It is also planned to dramatically increase the level of outsourcing of support functions to private companies. Italy's all-professional military will have 190,000 personnel, including a 44,000-strong air force. Martino says he is aware that Italy needs to spend more to speed up the move to professional forces and eliminate the technology gap with Italy's allies to satisfy NATO and European Union goals.
To achieve this Italy will increase defence spending over the next 10 years from 1.5% of gross domestic product to 2%, while a "stop gap" special law is also planned to provide up to €7.5 billion ($6.5 billion) more during the period. This extra sum will principally be used to pay for ongoing programmes that are partially unfunded and for some new projects.
The minister, however, has also called for a review of current programmes to prioritise them and decide where the axe will fall.
The air force will be a beneficiary of the review as the government has made air defence and aerospace surveillance key priorities, with airborne early warning aircraft, surface-to-air missile batteries, mobile and fixed surveillance radars, and control, command, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) to receive immediate funding.
Source: Flight International