It was the capital of the automobile. The car industry was listed among
the city's leading industries on the city's entrance signs. Fiat's slowbut inexorable departure led to its decline and impoverishment. In
recent decades, Turin has undergone two parallel transformations: the
showcase city and the weapons city. ---- The showcase city is the
fulcrum of the public narrative, the flagship of city governments,
which, through exclusionary regeneration projects, have changed the face
of the city, enriching the center but increasingly impoverishing the
suburbs, fragmented by gentrification and increasingly stifling police
control.
The weapons city, on the other hand, has grown quietly, without noise,
without any major announcements.
The major investment in the weapons industry, unanimously made by all
the centers of political and economic power, is hidden behind satellites
and space exploration.
Turin is one of the centers of our country's aerospace warfare industry.
Seventh in the world and fourth in Europe, with a turnover of over
EUR16.4 billion and 47,274 employees, the aerospace industry is a huge
business of death . Despite some supply chain difficulties, it is
destined for growth thanks to the powerful warfare dynamics of recent
years. The weapons sector is the mainstay of local governments and
businesses in the Alps.
The Aerospace City project and the arrival of a NATO innovation
accelerator in the city are the clearest indicators of this.
The decline of the automotive sector has triggered a reconversion
process that has focused on the defense industry. The increase from
20,000 to 35,000 workers has not increased employment, but is instead
the result of the shift from the auto industry to the weapons industry.
One example among many: LMA Aerospace Technology, a medium-sized company
in Pianezza, in the Turin hinterland, founded in 1970 as part of Fiat's
large supply chain, has risen to new heights, specializing in components
for the civil and military aerospace sectors. The creation of the
Piedmont Aerospace District in 2019 marked an acceleration for the
defense industry in our region. The Piedmont Aerospace District is a
think tank that promotes, coordinates, and supports the activities of
industries in the sector. Until his promotion to Defense Minister, the
DAP was led by Guido Crosetto: today, Fulvia Quagliotti has followed in
his footsteps. To appreciate the importance of this governance body,
simply take a look at the list of DAP members .
, which features prominent political and industrial players, as well as
research and training centers. On the DAP board of directors, in
addition to President Quagliotti, appointed by the Piedmont Region, the
two vice presidents and the other members were nominated by industry,
industrial associations, and universities. The Aerospace and Defense
Meetings is held every two years in Turin, and this year marks its tenth
edition. The convention will take place from December 2nd to 4th, as
usual, in the Oval Lingotto conference center, part of the facilities
built on the ashes of the former Fiat industrial complex. The trade fair
is a closed event reserved for industry professionals: industry
manufacturers, members of the armed forces, international organizations,
government representatives, and contractors. The 2023 edition saw the
participation of 400 companies and 1,400 buyers, sellers, and government
representatives. Among the meeting's guest sponsors are the Piedmont
Region and the Chamber of Commerce. The true heart of the convention is
the bilateral meetings to forge cooperation and sales agreements: in
2021, there were over 7,500, two years ago, that number rose to 9,000.
The Oval is a hive of offices, where trade agreements are signed for the
weapons that destroy entire cities, massacre civilians, and poison lands
and rivers. The aerospace industry produces fighter-bombers, ballistic
missiles, satellite control systems, combat helicopters, and armed
drones for remote-control operations. Deadly games are played at the
aerospace and defense meetings for millions of people everywhere.
A large portion of Italy's aerospace companies are located in Piedmont.
The manufacturing sectors are closely linked to universities, primarily
the Polytechnic University of Milan, and other educational institutions.
Piedmont is home to five leading international players: Leonardo, Avio
Aero, Collins Aerospace, Thales Alenia Space, and ALTEC. Many of the
world's leading industries participated in the last Aerospace Biennial:
Airbus, Avic, Aernnova Aerospace, Boeing, Comac, Dell, Embraer, IHI
Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Mahindra Aerostructures, MBDA, Mitsubishi,
Nanoracks Europe, Nikon, Northrop Grumman, SAAB, Poeton Polska, SKF
Industrie, Superjet International, and Tei-Tusas Engine Industries. All
seven Italian aerospace clusters were present: Lombardy, Campania,
Lazio, Umbria, Puglia, Veneto, and Piedmont, whose delegation was the
largest with 75 companies and 11 startups. The Aerospace City, a center
of excellence for the aerospace warfare industry promoted by the arms
giant Leonardo and the Polytechnic University of Subalpine, will be
built between Corso Francia and Corso Marche, in an industrial area
abandoned for years, following the relocation of production to the
Caselle Torinese plant. A perfect location, nestled between Leonardo's
offices and the Altec and Thales Alenia plants. Leonardo focuses on
technological innovation, research, and the renovation of its production
sites. The information and advocacy campaign, waged in recent years by
the Antimilitarist Assembly, has succeeded in bringing to light a
project that aims to transform our city into a high-tech hub for the
development of the warfare industry. The focus of the research is on
improving the efficiency of the deadly weapons already capable of
destroying the planet. Institutional stakeholders, primarily the
Piedmont Region, and representatives of major industries have attempted
to downplay the Aerospace City's purely military vocation. But the mists
of dual use (military and civilian) or the fantasy of space travel
certainly won't obscure the reality. This is demonstrated by the
statements of Marco Zoff, head of Leonardo's Aircraft Division: "We are
here to share an ambition: we want to bring to these spaces the research
and development of some of the industrial programs Leonardo is involved
in, the Eurodrone, unmanned systems technologies, and the fighter of the
future. To do this, we need a space for research and development, and
the Aerospace City is a fundamental step on the path that will lead us
to develop new projects in this area."
In October 2022, Leonardo granted the Politecnico di Milano the spaces
in Building 37 of the former Alenia building on loan for use. This was a
fig leaf to save face for the Politecnico, which, in effect, accelerated
the process of integration into the military-industrial complex by
preparing to transfer part of its research to a facility owned by
Leonardo. The project remained at a standstill for years. From November
2021, when construction was announced at the eighth Aerospace and
Defence Meetings, until February 2025, when some demolition work began,
nothing happened. Research is expensive, and no company is willing to
invest without public support. It's no coincidence that the first signs
of a (re)opening of the game came in December 2024, when EUR17 million
emerged from the PNRR's budget for the Politecnico's research center.
However, many uncertainties still weigh on the project: Leonardo is
unable to find private investors. It's no coincidence that recent press
statements indicate that the Polytechnic will be the "implementing body
for the project," which, Leonardo CEO Cingolani assures, his Group will
"support." From protagonist to supporter? Cingolani appears decidedly
cautious. For now, only the 12,000 square meters of laboratories that
will be owned by the Polytechnic are certain, a project worth just over
EUR40 million funded by the Region (EUR15 million) and EUR17 million
from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). We're still far
from the budget needed to cover the entire operation, and Leonardo is
pressuring the government to dig into its pockets. The Aerospace City
will also host a defense innovation accelerator, one of the nine
European nodes of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North
Atlantic (DIANA), a NATO facility. This project, launched in Brussels in
June 2021, is part of NATO's technological innovation program for 2030.
The Turin hub's task is to coordinate and manage, through calls for
proposals and funds made available by allied countries, a network of
Italian companies and startups, to serve the Alliance's needs. NATO has
invested one billion dollars in DIANA. A mountain of money used to
produce increasingly sophisticated, increasingly deadly technologies.
Last but not least, on December 14, 2023, the Italian, Japanese, and
British governments signed the agreement on the Global Combat Air
Program, which provides for the design and construction, by Leonardo,
Mitsubishi, and BAE Systems, of a new fighter-bomber intended to replace
the Eurofighter and the F-35.
This will also ensure the future of the Alenia plant in Caselle
Torinese, which, having completed its more than decade-long orders for
Eurofighters, will be renewed for new, even more deadly warplanes.
The pieces of the puzzle that is transforming Turin into the arms
capital are many and do not always fit together as expected by those who
promote and support them.
The various business and political players supporting the project are
playing the blackmail card of employment, in a city where job and life
insecurity is increasingly prevalent and widespread, where healthcare,
education, and transportation are the privileges of those who can afford it.
We must overturn the perverse logic that sees the arms industry as the
engine that will make our city more prosperous. A war economy only
breeds more war.
Over the past twenty years, little by little, the antimilitarists'
commitment to fighting the production and trade of weapons has begun to
bear fruit, expanding the fight against war and those who arm it to
broader areas. Actively opposing the Tenth Aerospace and Defense Meeting
is an important step on this journey.
We live in dire times. The arms race and the emergence of a war economy
can and must be halted. It depends on each of us.
But. But.
https://umanitanova.org/torino-armi-e-mercanti-di-morte/
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