New security realities are forcing European countries to review the size of their armed forces. Currently, we are not only talking about Poland, which directly feels the threat from russia and plans to increase its own armed forces to 500 thousand, but also about countries that are not on NATO's eastern flank.
According to Reuters, the Italian Ministry of Defense is currently assessing the possibility of expanding country's armed forces by 60%. According to the plan, which is still being finalized, from the current 170 thousand, including 15 thousand in reserve, it is planned to reach the mark of 275 thousand people. Personnel costs alone will increase from the current 8.8 billion euros to almost 15 billion euros. After the project is approved by the defense ministry, it still awaits approval by the country's parliament.
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Such an expansion is associated with the obligation of NATO countries to reach a defense spending figure of 5% of national output.
On the part of Defense Express, we note that Italy, if compared with other NATO member states, is frankly lagging behind in this indicator. Back in 2024, the Italians spent only 1.49%, but in order to report that the 2% barrier has been reached, they resorted to certain manipulations. In particular, the defense budget included expenses for the carabinieri, who perform law enforcement functions, as well as two "black boxes" under the names "military mobility" and "cybersecurity".
In addition, despite the current security challenges, the plan to increase the number of troops is designed for as long as 18 years, until 2044. At the same time, in the already mentioned Poland, a 2.5-fold increase in the armed forces is planned to be achieved by 2039, in 13 years.
But despite the very distant implementation deadlines, along with the fulfillment of new Alliance requirements, the support of deputies for this plan to expand the Italian armed forces, as the publication notes, is assessed as doubtful, due to calls to spend money on social projects.
It is worth noting that in addition to spending on a larger number of personnel, even more funds should be directed to the purchase of new weapons and training of military personnel. Also, the real costs will depend on the decision to return compulsory military service and the formation of a combat-ready reserve, or will it be only a contract army.
Recall that at the time of the collapse of the USSR, the Italian armed forces numbered about 360 thousand people, of which 234 thousand were in the ground forces, not including the reserve. Currently, counting the regular troops, we are talking about only around 160 thousand, of which 94 thousand were in the ground forces.
Thus, even if Italy really increases its armed forces by 60%, to the announced mark of 275 thousand, it will still be less than as of 1991. This is despite the fact that the security challenges facing Europe are now much more serious than 35 years ago.
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