On Wednesday, March 16, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Luca Goretti, spoke to the joint Defense commissions describing the state of readiness of the Arma Azzurra. It is true that among all the bodies with stars, yours is the one that has the most interactions with foreign forces in terms of characteristics and therefore must maintain a very high degree of effectiveness even in periods of relative international “tranquility”, if only the surveillance of our airspace must be guaranteed every day of the year, as well as emergency medical transport and many other activities which, precisely because of the pandemic, have seen the military fleet always busy. Last year, during the air police operations in northern Europe, close encounters between our pilots and the Russian ones were not lacking, and with the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the one carried out a few weeks ago became “front line” in Romania, with the Air Black Storm task force deployed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu airport in Constanta (340 military personnel at full capacity) to help ensure the integrity of Romanian airspace by strengthening the activities of its limited aviation. A consolidated procedure carried out by all NATO air forces in rotation, 365 days a year, in order to ensure the integrity and safety of the airspace of all the countries of the Alliance. The missions are conducted under the command and control of one of the two Combined Air Operations Centers (CAOC), located in Uedem (Germany) for the northern area and Torrejon (Spain) for the southern area, under the supervision of the allied command. (Aircom) of Ramstein, Germany. The work of the pilots foresees that in case of violation of the airspace, interceptor aircraft quickly take off on alarm (Scramble) to identify the threat and act according to protocol. So far, these have been aircraft whose crews had lost communication with the control bodies, or pilots who had not realized they had crossed the line, but without hostile intentions. But if it were to penetrate an airplane that wanted to attack, there would be little to discuss and the attack to neutralize the threat would be necessary. Up to now operational routine, even if given what is happening in the Ukrainian sky, the aerial police activity has been strengthened by a NATO decision in favor of the member countries of the eastern border. These missions therefore represent the ability of the allies to share and optimize the use of vehicles, personnel and professionalism, reducing costs and maximizing efficiency.
Goretti did not fail to thank Parliament “for allowing us to grow technologically in order to be able to face complex operations even in an extremely variable, uncertain, unstable, sometimes critical geostrategic context such as the one we are experiencing these days for the Russian-Ukrainian war.” It is no coincidence that a few days ago he had supported and authorized the doubling of the Eurofighters engaged in NATO operations. The number one of the Italian Air Force therefore reassured us on the level of readiness and operational capacity that allows for maximum effectiveness. “I can proudly say” Goretti explained “that today the Italian Air Force is recognized by all our friends and allies as a leader in Europe both on issues related to aerospace power and on the new domains in which we operate.” According to him, we have exemplary capabilities such as the fleet component formed by fifth generation aircraft (F-35), the rapid projection capability from aerospace (CNPRA) and that of Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. But he also pointed out to politics the need for these activities to be accompanied by far-sighted long-term financial planning, precisely because the space and cyber sectors are extremely technological and require depth and certainty of investments for research and development, acquisition strategies. clear, continuous and advanced training of operators.
Having said that, on the same day, upon examination of the so-called “Ukraine decree”, the political forces asked and obtained to bring defense spending to 2% of GDP, keeping a promise we made to the Americans in 2014 (Renzi government), when at the NATO summit in Wales they made the world weigh that the majority of the Alliance was paid for. The text of the provision, voted positively by all political forces except for “There is an alternative”, not only provides for more weapons, but also more research and investments for the entire Defense sector.
What has undoubtedly contributed to making the Air Force ready today in Afghanistan (evacuation of about 5000 people) and during the first phase of the pandemic, and now the approximately 700 people engaged in rapid ration operations in support, above all, of a diplomatic action that we would like to be effective and credible. In the speech given by General Goretti this sentence is particularly significant: “With the rapid technological progress, the threat has also evolved, now lapping the upper layers of the atmosphere and the low orbits around the Earth. These phenomena, not found in other domains (such as the sea, ed), make our operational environment, or aerospace, considerably larger and more complex to manage and defend, requiring the Armed Force to undertake a fundamental evolutionary process: we must also look beyond the atmosphere to ensure the defense and security of our country and beyond. ” The allusion is obviously to the hypersonic and space weapons of Russia and China. Without discounting his memory, Goretti also reminded politics that over the years “the Air Force has been a victim of the contraction of economic resources, and perhaps thinking of living in a world of global peace and serenity, has seen the number of aircraft drastically reduced. supplied, also thanks to the erroneous belief deriving from the military successes of the Gulf War, that a higher technological level of aircraft and armaments can alone always compensate for a smaller quantity of them. ” He is right: in twenty years we have gone from 842 to about 500 aircraft, of which less than 300 with advanced combat functions, which considering the state of preparation and maintenance leads to those that can be used continuously to the current about 100. In practice, a vicious circle which has seen several air forces, including the American USAF, to dangerously approach the thresholds of attention regarding the assets available.
Dangerous, according to Goretti, is the “dimensioning of the force calibrated on a typically wait-and-see static defensive posture” on which to dimension the equipment of today’s Air Force, which does not allow to generate sustained effects over time against hostile and diversified adversaries. We can no longer afford this numerical disadvantage, the history of these days reminds us once again with stark evidence. ” And considering the ongoing commitments that we must face today, from the north flank (Iceland) to the east (Baltic and Black Sea), from the south (from the Sahel to the Persian Gulf), the warning of the Air Force to Parliament is clear: without means and without research and technology it gets lost. Also because the opponents are investing much larger resources.
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