by Nicola De Felice

Based on the lessons learned from the current conflict, the increase in military spending and the level of responsibility that political authority would like to assume for the protection of national interests, ground forces, in addition to ensuring a qualified presence in Italy to contribute to security and public order, must be able to deploy - outside the country - a force at least of Army Corps level. Land forces must be articulated into " deployment forces" for the conduct of a military campaign or operation. The combination of the various branches (infantry, artillery, genius, etc.) and specialties (Bersaglieri, mountaineers, paratroopers, etc.) must ensure an optimal balance of their respective strengths and limitations, within an innovative framework free from anachronistic partisan positions.

Deployed forces are to be divided into three main groups.
The first group consists of combat forces, which are in turn divided into heavy (tanks and mechanized infantry), medium (with wheeled or tracked vehicles), light (high mobility), specialized (air assault, airborne, marine) and special forces.
The second group includes combat support forces, such as fire support (artillery), operational (engineer, aviation), protection (antiaircraft, CBRN, engineer), command and control (transmissions), electronic warfare, cyber and intelligence, psychological operations, CIMIC and drone target acquisition, and others.
The third group is logistics support.

The climatic and environmental conditions in the areas where national interests exist and the variety of threats require a high degree of adaptability, under very tight time constraints. This adaptive capacity requires very flexible forces that can intervene both during natural disasters and during crises or conflicts.

The ability to acquire and maintain dominance on the ground implies the availability of an instrument organized on units of different organic levels, with a high degree of operational and logistical autonomy, in order to ensure the necessary agility, with a modular structure. Such a structure and a staggered and progressive logistical support must allow the forces - including their armament - to embark on naval and air carriers, civilian or military, ensuring reduced deployment time in the theater of operations and a high speed of deployment.

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The plurality of professional capabilities, equipment, and armaments provided must enable the ground instrument to intervene in multiple situations, from contributing to humanitarian intervention operations to conventional conflict. The distribution of forces over the territory must allow interaction with the population and interface effectively in an inter-branches environment. The Italian Army must help restore to an essential state of functionality the basic facilities and services useful to a population affected by a disaster or crisis, at home or "out of area." Valid for all Armed Forces: the unfreezing of turnover for both military and civilians must be intelligently reviewed to ensure adequate generational replacement, effective service in work establishments as well as a renewed social function toward the world of work and youth employment.

I would not rule out a useful mandatory national defense service.

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Senior Fellow of the Centro Studi Machiavelli. Admiral of division (res.), former commander of destroyers and frigates, he has held important diplomatic, financial, technical and strategic assignments for the Defence and Navy Chiefs of Staff, both at home and abroad, at sea and on land, pursuing the application of capabilities aimed at making the Italian defence and security policy effective.