Resolving initiative or dangerous front operation?

20/08/14

A few days ago it was announced that Italy will provide armament to the Kurds to defend themselves from the forces of the "Islamic Caliphate". At the time of writing, it is being discussed at the competent chamber and senate commissions while it seems that Minister Pinotti has already viewed the material stored in an underground deposit in Sardinia accompanied by the highest military leaders.

Leaving aside all ethical considerations, political expediency and military effectiveness of the decision, we will limit ourselves to modest considerations on the initiative that is proposed as of absolute effectiveness and which instead could, at least on a purely technical level, prove to be a facade operation in the same way of what is happening for the affair of the two marines. Words, visits, promises but only poor results which in this case could also prove dangerous.

The material in question should consist, as reported by the minister herself, of weapons, ammunition and perhaps equipment seized in 1994 in the Strait of Otranto from Russian traffickers who were preparing to supply the belligerents of the former Yugoslavia.

About 30 Ak-47 Kalashnikovs, Russian-made rifles already supplied to Kurdish guerrillas, and tons of ammunition. Also MG 42/59 machine guns with relative ammunition and no longer in use by our armed forces. Perhaps also anti-splinter jackets, radio and jammer devices, anti IED jammers (Improvised Explosive Device).

Immediate doubt that there is the risk of supplying the rebels with a material that is perhaps not perfectly functional, also mixing types of ammunition that could be confused by non-expert personnel, with serious consequences. Even electronic systems unknown to the Kurdish mountaineers like modern jammers.

Kalashnikovs are high-rate-of-fire submachine guns that must be periodically maintained with care, greased and protected from dust to prevent them from rusting and jamming upon use. They use 7,62 × 39mm caliber bullets like one of the bullets that should have killed the two Indian fishermen from Kerala.

The MG 42/59 machine guns in service since the last period of the Second World War are weapons with a very high rate of fire. They also require careful and constant maintenance and even the replacement of the barrel subject to very high heating resulting from the rapidity of fire is foreseen during the use of the weapon. They use 7,62 × 51mm bullets apparently similar to the Soviet ones used by the AK-47 but substantially different. If exchanged, they can cause significant damage to the personnel who use them.

Part of the material seized is also 400 Fagot, a missile against Soviet tank which entered service in the 1971 practically a copy of the Franco-German Milan. It was first used in the 1982 war in Lebanon.

Also 5000 Katiuscia rockets, Soviet-made rocket launchers introduced during the Second World War, with a range of around 9 km but very inaccurate.

What is the state of conservation of this material is not known, it is doubtful that it will guarantee an immediate and absolute reliability of the weapons and self-propelled systems such as the Fagot and the Katiuscia, equipped with sophisticated systems of "shot" and pushed from moisture-sensitive launch systems.

Material that lies from the far 1994 in the basement near the sea, whose original effectiveness is certain but not the residual one after being stacked for 18 years, without a programmed and cyclic control of effective maintenance or treatment object of appropriate conservative treatments, being of systems unrelated to the national military instrument.

The political announcement to help the Kurds was launched, accompanied by convinced assurances of our choices, applying a communicative model that has now become commonplace and experienced in dealing with the two-maro affair for more than two years.

Words, assurances and certainties, however, all to be proved and that in the specific case could increase the number of unexploded war devices due to malfunction due to inexperience, obsolescence, poor conservation and poor maintenance, fueling the post-war danger for the civilian population, in particular women and children.

We hope as professionals in the sector and as men who respect the life of someone who has carefully assessed these aspects and the possible risks that could result.

Fernando Termentini