A-Infos (en) Italy, UCDI #183 - REARMAMENT (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Winds of war are blowing ever more forcefully in Europe, while the 
states of the continent decide to convert their production capacities 
into a war economy. The decision of the European Commission is leading 
the way, announcing that it will allocate 1.5 billion euros for the 
common arms market. This is what was foreseen by Asap and Edip, the two 
programs launched only last year to increase war production, which are 
in fact already outdated. ---- In fact, we are working to create the 
conditions so that by 2030, at least 40% of defense equipment is 
purchased in a "collaborative" way; to ensure that at least 35% of the 
EU defense market is represented by intra-EU trade; to make "steady 
progress" towards purchasing at least 50% of the material in Europe, 
reaching 60% by 2035.
The EDIP ( European Defense Industry Programme ) was therefore approved 
which should provide, according to the Commission, the legal framework, 
transforming the short-term emergency measures, adopted in 2023 and 
valid until 2025, into a structural approach: it covers both financial 
and regulatory aspects; will mobilize EUR1.5 billion of the EU budget 
over the period 2025-2027 to continue strengthening the competitiveness 
of European defense production. The new structure that will support the 
European Armaments Program (SEAP), aimed at facilitating and increasing 
cooperation between member states in defense production, stimulating 
joint programming and procurement, through the creation of a Development 
Preparation Committee of the defense industry of the 27, together with 
the High Representative and the Commission. To this end, a fund will be 
created to facilitate access to financing through debt and/or risk 
capital instruments for SMEs and small mid-cap companies industrializing 
defense technologies and/or manufacturing defense products, (read arms 
industry), promote cooperation between Member States in the procurement 
phase and financial support for defense industries, in order to increase 
their production capacity and to further encourage investment. The 
expenditure will obviously weigh on the community budget, but since 
there are a lack of resources, we cannot rule out using at least part of 
the Russian deposits in the banks of Western countries and this after 
having stated that they want to use them to provide Ukraine with the 
necessary financial support, for which they lack the necessary 
resources. Evidently the European Union has well learned the Mussolini 
and fascist technique of moving the Duce's tanks on the occasion of his 
visit, to show that it is strong!

The objective of these choices is to strengthen the European defense 
industrial and technological base (EDTIB), to fully exploit its 
potential through:

greater efficiency in the expression of Member States' collective 
defense demand using existing tools and initiatives, such as the 
Capability Development Plan (CDP), the Coordinated Annual Defense Review 
(CARD) and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and will supported 
by incentivising Member States' cooperation in the defense capability 
procurement phase;
the availability of all defense products through a more responsive 
EDTIB, in any circumstance and time horizon. This means that investments 
by Member States and the European defense industry in developing and 
bringing to market cutting-edge defense technologies and capabilities 
will be supported and measures will be taken to ensure that the EDTIB 
has the necessary resources including in times of crisis, thereby 
increasing the EU's security of supply;
ensuring that national and EU budgets support with the necessary means 
the adaptation of the European defense industry to the new security 
context obtained by raising the defense (war) allocation of each State 
to 2% of GDP;
integrating a culture of defense readiness into all policies, (i.e. 
accustoming the people of Europe to the necessity of war) in particular 
by calling for a review this year of the European Investment Bank's 
lending policy;
Demonstrating total contempt for democracy, for citizens' choices, for 
peace, the European Union has decided without an explicit vote of 
national parliaments to become inextricably involved in the war in 
Ukraine by taking two further final decisions, namely that of developing 
closer ties with Ukraine through its participation in Union initiatives 
in support of the defense industry and by stimulating cooperation 
between Ukrainian and EU defense industries; working with NATO and 
like-minded international strategic partners and strengthening 
cooperation with Ukraine.
The industries in the sector sincerely thank and prepare for 
astronomical profits, while the European people prepare to die.

Italy and Europe at arms

In 2020, the defense spending of the European countries belonging to the 
Agency was approximately 200 billion euros, equal to 1.5% of the gross 
domestic product and 2.8% of the public spending of the member states. 
In 2020, defense spending continued to increase for the sixth 
consecutive year and, compared to 2019 (+ 5 percent), it is the same as 
the previous year
and represents the largest increase since 2015.
Unlike military spending the GDP of the member states decreased by 6% in 
2020. The EDA Report notes that the increase in the percentage of 
defense spending on GDP (which went, as mentioned, from 1.4% in 2019 to 
1 .5% of 2020) is partially due to the weakening of the economy: 
approximately 22 percent of defense expenditure in 2020 (i.e. 44 billion 
out of 198) is related to investment expenditure which increased by 5 
percent compared to to 2019 and, compared to 2014 - the year in which 
investments in defense reached their lowest level - in 2020 there was an 
increase of 70%. Furthermore, in 2019, for the first time since 2010, 
the Member States as a whole exceeded the parameter of 20 percent of 
investment spending on total defense spending, which demonstrates the 
constant growth of sector spending.
In the framework of Permanent Structured Defense Cooperation (PESCO), 
participating States have agreed to make a number of binding 
commitments, including increasing resources for defense budgets, in 
order to achieve - as mentioned - the objective of a medium-term 
increase in spending to 2% of GDP (as also agreed within NATO), with a 
20% share for investments in the defense sector, while that of China and 
the USA is around at 30%,
As regards Italy, in 2020 the percentage of investment expenditure of 
defense expenditure reaches 24.6%, compared to 22.2 percent at a 
European level. According to data collected by the EDA, spending on 
military supplies represents almost all of investment spending while 
spending on Research and Development activities in the
defense sector is equal to 1.1% of investment spending: investments for 
defense include expenditure for the purchase of defense equipment and 
related research and development expenditure and do not include 
operation and maintenance expenditure (spare parts and supplies, costs 
relating to the maintenance of public utilities and infrastructure
) .
Both European military procurement and defense research and development 
activities were significantly affected by the public spending review 
measures adopted following the 2008 financial crisis. However, defense 
spending declined for a period longer than that for military supplies, 
reaching the lowest level in 2016. Since 2017, it has had a recovery, 
reaching a level similar to 2007 in 2019 and exceeding it in 2020 when 
that for new military supplies increased by 4% compared to 2019, 
reaching 36 billion euros. Regarding the procurement of equipment, 
collaboratively, despite the target of 35% of military equipment 
spending to be achieved in collaboration with other EU states, Member 
States continue to predominantly procure on a national basis. In 2020, 
Member States spent 4.1 billion euros on military procurement, a 
decrease of 13% compared to 2019.
Member States purchased only 11% of defense procurement spending in Europe.
This result is partly due to the increase in spending on defense 
procurement, which was not followed by a similar growth in collaborative 
purchasing in Europe.
Precisely with the aim of pushing towards greater cooperation, the EU 
Foreign Affairs Council adopted on 11 December 2017 - on the basis of 
the proposal presented by France, Germany, Italy and Spain - the 
decision (CFSP) 2017/2315 with which Permanent Structured Defense 
Cooperation (PESCO) is established and on 14 December 2020 the Council 
of the EU reached a political agreement on the proposed regulation 
establishing the European Defense Fund , in the context of the 
Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF ) for the period 2021-2027 is 
equipped with overall resources of approximately 7.9 billion euros, 
divided between funding for research (2.6 million) and development (5.3 
million) with the aim of strengthening the European industry in the 
sector, encourage economies of scale and the standardization of defense 
systems, in order to make Member States' spending more efficient, and 
encourage greater interoperability between the various national armed 
forces. The Fund covers the entire production cycle of the defense 
industry: research, design, product development but also supply chains 
and testing.
The projects can only be financed if they involve, in a consortium, at 
least three different legal entities (not controlled between each other) 
from three different Member States since their objective is to improve 
cooperation within the EU. Special incentives are foreseen for research 
on so-called breaking point", for projects approved within the scope of 
Permanent Structured Cooperation and for those involving small and 
medium-sized enterprises. In June 2021, with the publication of the 
first 23 calls, of which 11 in the research sector, and 12 in the 
development sector, in 15 categories, which include chemical and 
bacteriological defense, information superiority, sensors, cyber, space,
digital transformation, military energy resilience, components, air 
combat, air and missile defense, land combat, naval combat and 
disruptive technologies. The total amount of funds for this first round 
of investments is 1.2 billion euros. Finally, on 21 March 2022, the EU 
Council approved the Strategic Compass, with the aim of defining 
concrete objectives to strengthen the security of the Union and outline 
its strategic perspectives for the next 5-10 years.

Towards overcoming the professional army

The data we have reported in great detail demonstrate that the march 
towards rearmament comes from afar, has been carefully prepared at a 
regulatory and economic level, recording a crescendo of investments. 
What the EU countries. what they still don't say is that these choices 
are a prelude to a paradigm shift imposed by the war in Ukraine, 
relating to the structure and composition of the armies.
The Vietnam War and the collateral and social damage caused by its 
reporting through the media demonstrated the impossibility of managing 
war through citizen mobilization and compulsory conscription. Thus the 
mass army has been replaced by professional armies, made up of a limited 
number of highly specialized personnel, perhaps supported by private 
militias of contractors recruited for this purpose and on the occasion 
of employment needs. These military bodies have conducted the wars of 
the last thirty years with little success, demonstrating that in the 
long term they were not capable of carrying out the intervention 
successfully, unless they had armies in the field made up of soldiers 
motivated to fight for a cause shared by them. It is no coincidence that 
Daesh was defeated above all thanks to the presence of the Kurds on the 
field, rather than the special forces sent to the field by the various 
powers.
It is said that at the outbreak of the Ukrainian war a significant 
number of contractors flowed into the country to work alongside the 
Ukrainian army, trusting that the allies would provide sufficient 
economic resources to pay them, but as soon as the war ended transformed 
into a clash of position with the creation of a front, many of them 
understood that there was no point in insisting and abandoned the field, 
unable to withstand the sacrifices and commitment that trench and 
positional warfare require.
This has reopened the debate in all Western countries between 
maintaining professional, small and highly specialized armies, or 
returning to compulsory conscription to form mass armies capable of 
withstanding large losses. Societies in Western countries are not 
prepared to manage the choice to resort to strengthening defense 
capabilities through reservists, because this could have devastating 
effects, both in terms of public perception and the practical 
implementation of defense policies.
Not only that, but the war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of 
strategic flexibility, resilience, adaptive capacity and the use of new 
technologies, as well as the need for a large army capable of replacing 
losses. The enormous use of materials, equipment and ammunition, of 
increasingly advanced weapons, however, entails an impressive sacrifice 
in human losses, which requires the ability to quickly mobilize large 
numbers of soldiers to be employed for a prolonged time in the field. It 
will be said that the use of drones, electronic warfare and other 
advanced technologies have highlighted the crucial role of technology 
and have shown that this is not enough to compensate for the numerical 
size of the troops to be deployed on the battlefield.
On the other hand, the need for specialization of fighters in the use of 
increasingly technological and specialized armament, the need for 
training of soldiers in the field makes it unreasonable to think of 
training a mass army in the use of weapons with such advanced 
technologies. This is the reason why many Western countries are thinking 
of new defense models that integrate professional armies with the 
availability of reservist soldiers, who can be called upon in the event 
of conflict. To create such a structure, an innovative approach to the 
training of future fighters would be needed, training them in time in 
the use of new technologies, augmented virtual reality, with training 
based on teaching entrusted to artificial intelligence, in the knowledge 
that a modern war it requires a competence that is no longer 
predominantly physical and tactical, but made up of mental capacity, 
widespread decision-making and a profound motivation to act, as, for 
example, happens with the Israeli army.
In other words, the solution may lie in a combination of specialized 
professional forces and the ability to rapidly mobilize mass armies, 
supported by significant investments in advanced technologies and 
electronic and asymmetric warfare preparedness.

The Crosetto solution

To solve the problem, Minister Crosetto proposes a defense model that 
involves the integration of reservists as a flexible approach to a 
conflict in which a country is involved by proposing to have a trained 
and ready-to-use reserve force, capable of integrating quickly with 
regular armed forces when needed, in the belief that modern conflicts 
require not only advanced technologies and specialized forces, but also 
the ability to rapidly mobilize increasing numbers of troops. This 
choice would allow us to have a large base of trained military 
personnel, who can be quickly mobilized in the event of a crisis, 
without depending exclusively on the professional armed forces.
Aware that his proposal requires understanding and sharing on the part 
of civil society and at the same time that there is a need to provide 
these personnel with adequate military preparation, the minister intends 
to work on a transformation of the relationship between citizens and the 
armed forces which it has profound implications for the social fabric 
and therefore aims to strengthen national identity and the perception of 
security by "educating" and involving the population on defense needs 
and civil responsibilities in relation to national security. This 
objective must be pursued through public information campaigns, 
parliamentary debates, involvement initiatives that aim to build a 
consensus on the importance of a defense system, in the face of an 
ongoing potential aggression against which it is necessary to defend 
ourselves in the name of democratic freedoms , the defense of the values 
of Western civilization.
Naturally, to implement the project it is necessary to develop a 
regulatory framework that effectively regulates the reserve service, 
ensuring that it is fair, voluntary and based on fair and shared 
principles. It is necessary to provide it with economic resources, 
diverting the meager resources available towards this expenditure item.

Our answer

It is necessary to take note of these projects, to understand that their 
implementation is of vital importance in this political phase for a 
neo-fascist and warmongering government which sees war as one of the 
tools for resolving conflicts, clearly contradicting the constitutional 
dictate. It is therefore necessary to mobilize public opinion, among 
young people, discussing with all strata of society, to counter this 
criminal project which would have the first effect of draining the 
available resources, finalizing them for war mobilization and taking 
them away from the social needs and needs of the population and as a 
second immediate consequence that of leading the country to war, sowing 
mourning and destruction. The search for peace, antimilitarism, 
pacifism, the rejection of war return to strident and urgent relevance.

Dedicated to Tommaso Aversa, Antimilitarist

The Editorial Team

https://www.ucadi.org/2024/03/17/il-riarmo/
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