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vrijdag 19 april 2024

WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (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in fact already outdated.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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