In an area far from the city clamor and reachable only with an anonymous street and without any indication, the Italian Army has deployed the most formidable force of attack in history: nine hundred Leopard, three hundred M-60, three thousand between M-109 and M- 113, as well as hundreds of Centauro and Puma armored vehicles.
In Europe, France has almost five hundred and Britain has just over half, this to better describe the enormity of the Italian armored component. They are neatly arranged in a flat area in the Vercelli area of three million square meters, more precisely in Lenta, and although many are dated a revision would be enough to make them operational.
This is the product not of a will to power, but of a slow and cumbersome bureaucracy. When a vehicle needs a repair, if the cost exceeds the value of the 50%, we prefer to remove it from the service and sell it rather than demolish it, but between regulations and spending review, for over 20 years the Army parks them in Lenta in waiting to make its final destiny. Thus the vehicles have turned into a real mountain of metal that could also generate significant environmental damage.
The Ministry of Defense has launched an emergency plan to get rid of these vehicles by placing some on the market at favorable prices and others will be dismantled with the criteria dictated by international protocols. In order to speed up the sale operations, many vehicles have been given away to friendly nations, and among these to Libya before the insurrections.
The demolition will not however be an end in itself, in fact between the recycling of the materials and the recovery of the pieces still in good condition, the Defense should recover up to six thousand euros for each scrapped armored vehicle, this translates into approximately 2,5 million divided between sales and spare parts. In fact many vehicles kept in Lenta are better than others that face each other in battle still in Kurdistan and in Libya itself.
Among the customers interested in buying, there is Pakistan that will pay around 60.000 euros for self-propelled vehicles with practically new 155 mm howitzers, Jordan will instead take the Centauro to 100.000 euros. From this market it will also gain revenue, that is companies that will be charged with bringing the vehicles back to life before delivery, revising them and removing the insignia of Italian missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.
In doing so, Italy will once again have its current and declared 200 Ariete tanks.
Source: L'Espresso
(image: Google Earth)
