At the presentation of the scientific results of High Altitude Camp 2024, held in Cortina, the chief of staff of the Italian Army, General Carmine Masiello, declared that: “Conflict has always spurred innovation, but today's changes are unusually rapid and disruptive, placing a new emphasis on building technology-driven forces. We are already witnessing, and will be even more so in the near future, confrontations dominated by increasingly autonomous weapons systems and powerful algorithms.".
The increasingly greater interest shown by Italy in the Arctic also fits into this framework. The Arctic regions are increasingly a place of geopolitical competition between powers, with a risk of further destabilization of the international panorama. From the point of view of natural and energy resources, but also with regard to the trade routes of the near future (the famous "Arctic route" on which Russia has built its own very specific strategy), the Arctic has inevitably become a disputed. Even more so, its legal status which is still unclear today makes the Arctic an area of particular interest and, equally, of friction between States.
General Masiello explained that, precisely due to the growing importance that the Arctic will have in international scenarios, the Italian Army “launched a program for the creation of a combat capability in the Arctic and sub-Arctic environment”.
Conducting land operations in the Arctic, as they are imagined in a few years, will be very different from what the British, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Soviets, Finns and Norwegians did in Lapland, Norway, Svalbard and Greenland during the Second World War. world war. Conducting reconnaissance or fighting on the polar shelf is different from conducting operations, for example, in Narvik.
The problems that land troops would encounter would be greater and very different from those of naval forces. If from a maritime point of view the intense activity of the German and allied navies during the last world war, but also the American and Soviet operations at the height of the Cold War, have demonstrated that the Arctic waters can be a theater of operations; a land conflict in the Arctic would meet other needs.
In terms of individual equipment, weapon and support systems, but also land navigation instruments, even before the Arctic theater in the field it must be addressed engineeringly at the level of studies on new materials or the adaptability of those already used. The challenge to equip the Army with operational capacity in Arctic and sub-Arctic scenarios could also be an opportunity to prepare improved equipment for Alpine troops and, in general, for infantry specialties called to operate in even geographically hostile environments.
It is no coincidence that General Masiello often underlines, and in Cortina it was no exception, the importance of developing collaboration between the Army and industry - in the specific case of the Arctic not only that of defense itself - and, therefore, of improve the "Country System" network in this sense.
The technological modernization of the Armed Forces and their land component specifically is urgent and can no longer be postponed. The speed of the changes is the result of the intensity of the clashes on the battlefields and also of the industry of the sector, that is, of those who have the necessary technological knowledge, a different pace of research and production is required to meet the needs of the military and national security.
