The Army Chief of Staff, Army Corps General Salvatore Farina, attended the conference on Thursday entitled: "Urgency of military transformation as a national strategic criticality: understanding the phenomenon and repercussions on the sustainability of the Terrestrial Military Instrument", organized by the Army Study Center (CSE), cultural association responsible for the development and diffusion of military thought, with particular reference to the Terrestrial Component.
The Undersecretary of State for Defense also spoke at the symposium held at the PC Dominioni room of the General Secretariat of Defense and National Armaments Directorate. Giulio Calvisi, some members of the Defense Commissions of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Dr. Guido Crosetto, president of AIAD (Federation of Italian Companies for Aerospace, Defense and Security), NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment Division, mr. Gordon Davis, and Army Corps General Paolo Ruggiero, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.
The general of the Reserve Enzo Stefanini, president of the CSE, opened the work by making a picture of the situation on the current financing of the earthly instrument, relating it to the operational needs of the Army and how much this gap affects the innovation capacity of the Armed Force.
The discussion continued with the collaboration of industry experts, including representatives of the investment and transformation division of NATO, of the University of Rome 2, of Leonardo SPA and of the Italian Companies Federation for Aerospace, Defense and Security (AIAD). analyzed the development of future scenarios up to the time limit of 2035.
The current conflicts are in fact increasingly characterized by urbanized scenarios with exploitation of infrastructures in their verticality. In these contexts, the number of non-military actors (civilians, operators of governmental and non-governmental agencies, operators of the media and regular and irregular fighters) increasing the course of operations is increasing; as well as the indiscriminate and terrorist use of any instrument of offense by non-state subjects and operating outside the norms sanctioned by the Law of Armed Conflict; the use of new high-performance technologies such as unmanned vehicles and aircraft (drones); exploitation of the cyberspace dimension, from the strategic to the tactical level; use of propaganda through new media to gain control of opinions; and finally the possible use of CBRN weapons. In this context, the rapid scientific evolution requires attention in the identification of performing technologies in the military field - nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, cybernetics in consideration of the reduction in temporal terms of the technical life of platforms, vehicles, vehicles, instruments and equipment. These systems require a continuous renewal congruent with the advancement of scientific and military innovations.
The conference therefore revealed, as also highlighted previously in other locations, the need for Italy to bridge the gap between funding and the needs of the Armed Force, in order to maintain the required operational and training standards.
Otherwise, if a multi-year investment planning is not carried out, there will be a real and progressive decline of the Army's operational capabilities in the next 5 years.
In the afternoon session the other CSE study was presented entitled "Mission Command, conditions, practice and phenomenology" with an interesting contribution provided by the speakers including Gen. ca (aus) Venci, the gen. d. (aus) Scollo, the gen. b. (Ris) Ciccarelli and several other representatives of the University, of foreign armies and of the Military Psychology Office of the Army General Staff. For all the young officers present in the audience and connected by videoconference, it was an important opportunity to get to know and deepen the theme of the "Mission Command", and listen to the testimonies of other commanders who intervened in the debate, such as General (aus) Bertolini.
The Army Study Center is an autonomous body, a forum for the elaboration of military thought on themes specific to the Terrestrial Military Instrument which supports the development and diffusion of national military thought, with particular reference to the terrestrial component, through the analysis and development of independent historical social studies on technological innovation, the human component and the forms of struggle emerging in modern and future operational scenarios, translating the most significant activities into communicative events.
During the year 2019, a collaboration agreement was signed at the Central Library of the Army General Staff for the execution of research and study activities aimed at deepening and disseminating issues of military culture, with particular attention to the Earth Instrument.
