Portolano: "Equipping ourselves with an Iron Dome is a priority for Italy. Developing defense and deterrence capabilities"

The provision of a system like Iron Dome by Italy is one of the objectives we are setting ourselves, says Luciano Portolano. The occasion is a hearing in the Chamber, in the Defense Commission, during which the Chief of Staff of the Defense took stock of the situation on the needs, the shortcomings and the military prospects of Italy, Europe and NATO. "Today there are air defense systems but we do not have a total coverage system. It is one of the priorities that Minister Crosetto wanted to set" , Portolano recalled. The minister had said to Il Foglio: "Defense from possible missile attacks is a priority for anyone who has to deal with the security and defense of a nation".

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The Chief of Staff expressed "strong concern along the entire eastern flank of NATO". And "if in the last thirty years attention has been paid to crisis response operations, today Italy must be able to have a military capacity for defense and deterrence, as demonstrated by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict".

Portolano then reiterated the need to support Ukraine, "a duty on the part of Italy" which has however determined "a lowering of the level of national stockpiles" which will have to be recovered . How long it will take to reintegrate the "stockpiles", the stocks, "depends on two factors: the spending capacity I have to be able to acquire ammunition, but essentially it is the production capacity of those who then have to guarantee me this ammunition, therefore the production capacity of the companies".

All this is happening while "the current geopolitical framework continues to be marked by a profound change in international balances, with an evident fracture between countries that support the democratic model and those that promote authoritarian models such as Russia, Iran, North Korea and others: this ideological gap is intertwined with open competition for access to energy resources and raw materials, with interference in the main trade routes and with destabilizing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East". In this framework, Portolano said, "the conflict in Ukraine involves the major world powers and has profound consequences on the European and international security structure: Moscow, despite extensive losses on the battlefield, is rebuilding its lost military capabilities and growing militarily at a faster rate than expected ".

The Chief of Staff then underlined the need for a stronger EU from a military point of view, advocating the creation of a command and control structure, which does not exist today. "We need to establish the figure of a single European commander, who is a point of reference at a political level". In addition to this, for the Chief of Staff, it would be necessary to create "a network of classified information", which "does not exist at a European level today, but exists at a NATO level".

Finally, as for Italy, Portolano explained that it will be important to enhance the capabilities of the personnel and "rebalance the organic resources, adapting them to the real functional needs". The Chief of Staff added that "an in-depth study on the reserve institute" is underway in order to have a pool of additional personnel "consisting of trained and readily deployable personnel" and able to integrate the Armed Forces starting from peacetime, Portolano revealed. Finally, "it is necessary to think about a rejuvenation of the Armed Forces". How? "By making a military career a more attractive option for young people".

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