Giampaolo Di Paola, Italy's defense minister, is racing to reform the armed forces. His goal is to obtain parliamentary approval this year for the legislative decrees needed to transform the military and implement them by spring 2013, prior to the general election.
Di Paola, former general staff chief and past chairman of the NATO military committee, wants to reduce uniformed and civilian personnel by 43,000 by 2024, maintain core capabilities, increase funding for operations and training, and safeguard money for modernization.
“In Europe personnel, on average, accounts for 51% of defense budgets,” he says. “For each soldier there is a €26,458 ($34,924) investment. In Italy, these numbers are, respectively, 70% and €16,424.” Noting that operations account for 12% of spending and modernization 18%, Di Paola adds, “We need to change this and move toward equilibrium among personnel spending (50%), operations (25%) and modernization (25%).”
The minister is preparing his plan for parliament, but has disclosed key elements. He knows there is little hope of a defense budget increase for at least three years, given the government's effort to reduce spending and cut debt. He is asking instead to maintain the current budget level to allow for mid- and long-term planning. The base will consist of €14.1 billion, which was allocated for defense in 2012-14. In addition to this the defense ministry will rely on extra money to pay for international military missions (€1.4 billion in 2012) and contributions from the economic development ministry, which pays a significant share of development and procurement costs of several big programs, ranging from Typhoon fighters to Fremm frigates and the army's network-centric programs. The economic development ministry provided €1.5 billion per year from 2007-09, €1.85 billion in 2011, and originally planned to spend €1.3 billion this year.
The government, aware that major cuts would have a dramatic impact on capabilities as well as on the aerospace and defense industrial base, added €375 million to the economic development ministry's 2012 aerospace and defense procurement budget, bringing the total to €1.67 billion. Rome plans to allocate €1.4 billion to the economic development ministry procurement budget in 2013, and €1.5 billion in 2014. The defense ministry's procurement money was €3.6 billion last year, €2.5 billion this year, and is expected to be €3.7 billion in 2013, and €3.5 billion in 2014. This will raise defense and economic development budgets above €5 billion for the next two years, from €4.17 billion this year (which includes the economic development ministry's contribution).
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