In issue no. 111 of the Observatory of International Politics, entitled "A reserve force for Italy", edited by Matteo Mazziotti di Celso and General Francesco Diella, addresses a reflection that can no longer be postponed on construction of a military reserve capable of combining quantity and quality and which can enable Italy to face even high-intensity wars.
The proposed model is part of a broader discussion, inaugurated by both the former Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, and the Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto, during the last hearings in the Chambers, where the need to proceed with an organic increase of the Armed Forces was highlighted, accompanied by the "availability of personnel and a set of credible capabilities that enhance the effectiveness of the military instrument". One of the possibilities to satisfy increasingly stringent requirements in terms of numbers and knowledge, passes through the reform of the reserve instrument.
The impact of new technologies on the Ukrainian and Middle Eastern battlefields, with the consequent expansion of their use, alongside “classic” military tactics and strategies, are factors that contribute to accelerating projects for a reform of the national military instrument that also affects the knowledge and readiness of personnel, not only in permanent service, but also in reserve.
The structuring of a reserve force capable of providing the Defence with the innovative skills necessary to face a multi-domain scenario can no longer be postponed. It is important that this type of force is considered “specialized” reserve” like something of diverse from the current one Selected Reserve, which constitutes a numerical integration pool of "traditional" and already consolidated professional figures within the officer corps of each individual Armed Force.
Logically, the activation of the reserve forces precedes the general mobilization, with the consequent reactivation of the compulsory military service; a phase in which the dilemma capacity-capability would be overcome in favor of the quantitative element necessary to withstand the shock of a mass war.
From a numerical point of view, to date neither the Selected Reserve nor the constitution Auxiliary Reserve of the State could guarantee the increase in organic power that is required. The authors of the dossier edited by Geopolitics.info they proposed, rightly, to reform the reserve in a "modular" way, writing that: "A modern mobilization system [...] must be well organized and ready to mobilize, flexible according to the increasingly complex needs to be faced, rapidly integrable into the active service component, expanding both its capability and capacity. The organization hypothesized here should be composed of 'Reserve Modules' different in terms of quality and quantity, progressively activated in different temporal phases".
Clearly, the issue related to the reserve forces and completion of the Armed Forces is very broad and in the process of rationalization. For example, even the Volunteer military corps of the Italian Red Cross is the subject of a bill aimed both at expanding the categories of management personnel, including among the recruitable officers, in addition to the current commissioners, doctors and pharmacists, also dentists, veterinarians, biologists, physicists, chemists and psychologists; and at making the methods of mobilization more efficient.
Once again, even for the auxiliary components of the Armed Forces, which are fully integrated into the reserve forces, the importance of uniting them in a "modular" mobilisable device is highlighted. capacity e capability.
