Mirko Molteni March 30, 2022
In the past few days, the Italian government has approved delivery to theUkraine of weapons to counter the Russian invasion, but the defense minister Lorenzo Guerini He has kept strictly silent about the type and quantity of systems that we will send to the military in Kyiv. We’re the only major Western country that can do that it does not officially announce what it will broadcast to a nation that, while not formally our ally through NATO ties, nevertheless belongs to the western world, at least in terms of claims of belonging. There were numerous hypotheses and conclusions about the kind of weapons we could send to the Ukrainians. And one wonders whether, depending on the modalities, there can be such deliveries negative impact on efficiency our own defence, particularly with regard to the state of army arsenals, as the prevailing land warfare in Ukraine means that mainly infantry weapons must make up the bulk of aid. In fact, if Ukrainians are given mainly weapons of the older generations, which are still in large numbers in the camps and whose preservation, combined with a certain technical simplicity, still allows them to be used efficiently even after several years, it can be assumed that the army they have will be stung or little objectionable. But the case would probably be different if decided that way Send weapons of the latest generation, more expensive and in itself perhaps not very numerous. Weapons that perhaps the Italian land forces have been able to obtain with a dropper in recent years, given the tightness of defense budgets.
BORBOTTII
When new systems that have been in maintenance for years and have finally arrived in the departments are immediately “inflated and diverted abroad, at least a murmur in the upper ranks of the Bundeswehr can be expected. Confidential sources told Libero about disagreements between the General Staff of Defense and the General Staff of the Army on the matter. We contacted the Army Public Information and Communication Office by phone and email to ask the question, but there was no answer. On the other hand, the confidentiality is understandable since the details of the deliveries are kept secret. Much has been speculated about the nature of the weapons that should make their way to Lviv and Kyiv from the beautiful country. There was talk of the Stinger antiaircraft missiles, ie small shoulder rockets Infrared search which, once launched by a soldier, crashes into lowaltitude planes or helicopters, attracted by the heat of their engines. They date back to the 1980s, and indeed, as early as 1986, Reagan’s America bestowed them on the mujhaeddin who opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Stinger, consisting of the launch tube and the reloading rockets, are still in use today and are in good condition. Recently they have also been fired in training at the shooting range.
The situation is similar with the Milanese antitank missiles of GermanFrench origin, which also date from the Cold War and were delivered to Italy in very large numbers at the time, up to 17,000 missiles and 716 launchers. If Ukraine resorted to some of these weapons, then the large numerical availability of our army would not create problems related to the lack of national reserves. The same is true of other types of ancient weapons that are invoked by the press these days, such as the classic 7.62mm MG field machine guns or the 12.7mm Browning heavy machine guns, which, if well preserved, are still very much alive afterwards can work well half a century in one cassette. Also from the German antitank rocket launcher Panzerfaust 3 Italy has many examplesmaybe 17,000, and you can afford to give some in Kyiv, as well as the similar American LAW, both of which, however, are effective when fired at an enemy tank from ranges of 200300 meters, exposing you to significant danger.
But there was also talk of the modern Israeli antitank missile Spike, which since 2009 our army and navy have received in a much smaller number of copies than the older systems, a little more than 2000. The Spike is more similar to the American Javelin and ensures one capability , to hit enemy tanks even from a few kilometers, depending on the version from 2 to 8 km, and with “Flip and Forget” mode, so that at first the operator only has to track the target, then the missile does everything by itself. Since the Spike is one of the most modern antitank weapons supplied to our detachments, it would be understandable if many officers would turn their noses up at the hypothesis, to rob oneself so easily. Leaving aside mere hypotheses, however, Italian military aid to Kyiv should avoid reducing resources crucial to our defense.