A state auxiliary military reserve also in Italy, with specific specialties to increase the number of the current armed forces by at least ten thousand units , through a voluntary military service and ready to enter into action in case of need.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto , after announcing his idea several times, is ready to present the bill to the Council of Ministers for discussion in Parliament . "It's a model not much different from the German one, because it's voluntary . The German one is automatic, the French one is totally voluntary," Crosetto explained during his visit to Paris. According to him, the draft bill must guarantee "the country's defense in the coming years: the document won't just address the number of troops, but also organization and rules."

HOW IT WORKS – The reserve could consist of no more than ten thousand personnel , a provision already introduced by Law 119 of 2022 by the previous Executive, which delegated this to the government. The reserve—once recruited, trained, and periodically retrained— could be composed of former military personnel or personnel with specific qualifications (always on a voluntary basis), including retired doctors. It could be deployed in times of need during potential international conflicts and crises, not directly in theaters of operations but for logistical support and cooperation, without excluding interventions in the event of disasters, as is already the case with the military.

These would be professionals available to the country, constantly updated with regular training and activated in specific cases. Therefore, they would not be a mandatory service, precisely because the defense needs experts today more than ever. This would help bridge the gap, often lamented by the armed forces regarding the shortage of men and women serving in the defense service, which currently totals just over 160,000.

Already in recent weeks, in a speech to military leaders at the Joint Operations Command, the Minister of the Army had stated bluntly that Law 244, which sets the limit on Defense personnel at 170,000, should be "thrown away" because "the spirit with which it was born is dead" and the numbers must be increased by at least 30,000-40,000. Not only that. In the informal document recently presented by the same minister to the Supreme Defense Council, chaired by President Sergio Mattarella, the minister spoke of the need for 10,000-15,000 new personnel to be trained in new technologies and artificial intelligence to combat the ongoing hybrid warfare : 5,000 of these would be needed in the cyber field alone.

(Unioneonline)

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