IDEF'15: what does Defense mean in the world, what it means in Italy

11/05/15

Dear readers, we have just returned from an event that left me speechless: IDEF'15, the Istanbul Defense salon. The amazement does not come so much from what we have witnessed, as from having realized what it means to be Italian in a world that turns and thinks in a completely different way: to be masochists.

Let me explain. When we started the Online Defense project, I believed that the national limit was to accept and understand what the military was and what it was for. Abroad, the armed forces are employed for tasks consistent with their professionalism, while in our country the soldiers appear as volunteers in missions that appear to be advertisements for the white mill.

It is forbidden to tell that in the theaters of operation they shoot at us.

However, it is possible to show that our planes leave without bombs: when we need (often) we ask them with a worried voice to the allies, as is still the case today in Afghanistan.

Well in Istanbul I brutally realized that our blind hypocrisy does not offend only the dignity of those who have chosen to serve their country in uniform, cut us off from a market that annually in figures is close to the value of national public debt.

The weapons presented to the IDEF were effective instruments of defense and offense, but they were weapons. A submachine gun was not disguised as a nail gun or a flowerpot mortar.

If I find myself in the middle of a battlefield or patrolling an area at risk, I do not care that my equipment is "dual use", I care that they are effective.

Some vehicles were advertised as "combat proven", and the national flags showed off on the howitzers. Can you imagine us? Barely daring a tricolor strip under the Fiat 500 ...

The armaments market does not happen then, as some thinkers can imagine, in the shadow of a cave between "shady traffickers of death", affects the military expenses that support all the governments of the planet (more or less, including halberds).

In Istanbul I visited a salon where companies competed in this huge market, each with its own flagship products and their governments in support.

Our government? Absent.

The only representative of the Defense who visited IDEF stands for a day was General Stefanini, the Secretary General of Defense and National Director of Armaments.

And do you know what he told us? Nothing: the man with a credit card in his pocket for military purchases, those for whom we pay all taxes, has decided not to interrupt a personal tradition of not answering questions from any journalist. Almost unnecessary provision if Defense Online had not been there this time: the only Italian publication present.

How can I say it?

Simple, after a year spent trying to interview the top management of the defense, from the minister to the fearless uniformed representatives, we accredited at the press conference of Lockheed Martin on the F-35. We were the only Italians and they did not expect it.

Do you know how many times I wanted to deal with the problems that - highlighted by Pentagon and other US government offices - were shamelessly brought to the attention of the public?

Let's say more than one ...

An answer?

Maybe, if only for good education.

We do not talk about the military, we do not talk about defense, we do not talk about industry.

Too bad that the unparalleled experts who assist our politicians omit to point out that non-communication is also a form of communication!

But let's get back to the F-35. Do you know what happened at the press conference?

A eulogy of the program with an Italy carried in the palm of your hand.

For me and colleague Iacch an almost embarrassing situation. Especially because, after many compliments as representatives of one of the main partners of the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program, we spoiled the party to the owners by asking for the various problems that afflict the aircraft.

The answer? That the time available immediately was insufficient and that they would have clarified our doubts later. After the conference, however, the Turkish television channels occupied the time of Jack Crisler (photo), the senior executive of Lockheed responsible for the commercial development of the F-35.

At the end of the Turkish interviews the calendar of appointments has engaged him in another meeting ...

we said to ourselves.

After a minute Alison, the manager's communication assistant, met us and informed us that we could interview him, despite the dense agenda, at 14.45.

At the set time and two minutes Jack Crisler was available for the interview.

With this, what do I want to get to? That we should learn from them and that the problem of Italy is that it does not address and deludes itself of dribbling problems by not communicating.

We are a country with extraordinary men who have sworn loyalty to the flag but who must disguise themselves - when it's OK - from lambs to justify their very existence.

We are a nation with industries capable of rivaling a huge market that simply underestimates or hides because it is inhabited by citizens who have been too long grown up as sheep convinced to live in a huge fold.

The world is a forest and outside of our "village of elves" there are wolves who think like wolves. They also act in herds but will never respect one of them who has masochistically believed to be something different.

Finally, we have not yet emerged from the recession. How many families will have to lose their jobs to understand the enormous possibilities of industrial development that our hypocrisy denies us.

Last year the Navy was the subject of many attacks for the "cruise" around Africa that led to numerous contracts and contracts in favor of Italian companies. The only criticism that should have been made was to be Italy: a country that has imposed to disguise it as a humanitarian initiative to make it possible.

The rest of the world in the meantime grows, mutters and thanks.

Andrea Cucco

(photo: © Difesa Online)