The Secretary General of Defence, General Luciano Portolano, Italian Armaments Director, was heard this morning in the Defense Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Many topics were addressed in his speech: from initiatives to mitigate personnel shortages and the age of vehicles, to the importance of increasing military spending to 2% of GDP. His reflection on the war in Ukraine and future scenarios is of great importance.

On sending the tanks to Kiev, the general explained: the "force multiplier is given by technologically advanced weapon systems that make it possible to rebalance the balance of forces in the field. I think that in the Ukrainian conflict these vehicles have shown a high protection capacity: for example Leopard tanks already decommissioned by our Army, while not technologically advanced, could be effective for some types of operations by offering mobility and adequate protection".

About arms transfers, Portolano reiterated that we need to pay attention to armaments stocks: "We need to settle and plan for future geopolitical and geostrategic developments in the post-war period. Italian industry is capable of responding according to the rhythms imposed by the needs of the moment" and it needs supporte and investments. "Our level of ambition needs to be reconfigured in the medium and long term" and now "we have to work on the supply chains of raw materials and semi-finished products, fundamental for our industry".

Finally, the perspectives of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict: "The choice of Italy and the international community to give support to Kiev is fundamental: it is a war of defense in response to a war of aggression wanted by Moscow. In these cases the aggressor he is not willing to compromise until it understands that the objectives it had before the conflict began are unattainable. The war will end when the dynamics on the battlefield force a change of posture on the aggressor". However, "post-conflict scenario planning needs to be initiated and continued: support and security activities". "After years of stabilization and peacekeeping operations, we must now focus on warfighting operations, which are much more expensive than peace-keeping operations".