Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that European defense should not be limited to the borders of the European Union, instead calling for the creation of a continental defense system that would extend to partnerships with the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, and Ukraine, as he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, reports UNN.
Details
Crosetto assessed signals that the United States intends to reduce its involvement in Europe.
As noted, European integration is an inevitable horizon in the analysis of the Italian Ministry of Defense. This concerns the industrial and operational base of the military universe. In the document proposed by the Italian Ministry of Defense, the publication writes, it appears to "establish the withdrawal and reduction of American involvement in Europe, regardless of Donald Trump." According to Crosetto, one can only "hope" - he uses this very term - that the strategic rebalancing of the US towards the Indo-Pacific region will occur "gradually," rather than suddenly.
Crosetto said the response should be to strengthen the defense system, "not limited only to the borders of the EU," to a "truly continental" territorial dimension, expanded to include partnerships "with the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Moldova, the Western Balkans, Turkey, and Ukraine." A kind of European alliance that complements NATO in its most traditional form, which is currently subject to Trump's changing mood.
On more than sixty pages of the proposed document, which defines the strategic priorities of the Italian minister and generals for the three-year period 2027-2029, titled "Guidelines for launching the integrated budget planning cycle" for the next year and "multi-year planning" for the following two years (Atto di indirizzo), which the newspaper La Stampa has seen, the essence of the concept "Defense 3.0," developed by Crosetto, is outlined. The project, as stated, was born from what is outlined in the preface: governments, the Italian minister writes, can no longer "limit themselves to planning capabilities that will be available in ten or fifteen years, when the scenario will have completely changed."
Today, as Crosetto writes, "defense must deliver operational results within timeframes determined by the threat." The main idea is that it is important to act before an open conflict, at the stage of strategic confrontation and competition. The Italian minister highlights two directions: "Building long-term autonomous capabilities" and "immediately - today filling the most critical capability gaps."
Satellite communications
The first concrete example: satellite communications. The medium- and long-term goal is to achieve "national and European" sovereignty over space technologies, but in the meantime, "an intermediate solution is needed - filling gaps - based on the use of an operator that already has an adequate constellation of satellites capable of providing coverage and continuity of service."
The culmination of the European project is the Iris 2 program, which involves the creation of three hundred low-orbit satellites under the leadership of the French company Eutelsat. Associated with this is the Bromo project, an Italian-French alliance of Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales to create a satellite industry giant. The goal is to create a competitive hub for Starlink.
Underwater infrastructure
Another area to focus on and invest in over the next three years is the underwater sector. "A less visible but no less important issue," Crosetto stated, "must be addressed at a strategic level". "Cables run along the seabed, carrying most of the world's communications, gas and oil pipelines, energy highways, vital infrastructure vulnerable to sabotage that is as simple as it is difficult to detect."
Hybrid threats, cybersecurity, AI, and Russia
It is also stated that in the era of hybrid threats, cybersecurity remains the most difficult task for governments. This is a multidimensional danger: it concerns decision-making centers, networks, and critical infrastructure. But not only that. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence requires a quantum leap: it is capable of "producing huge volumes of content at virtually zero cost," which distorts and "pollutes the information environment."
Russia remains the main source of this threat, as Crosetto repeated on the sidelines of the summit in Ankara, a few hours after the arrest of two former Italian intelligence agents who were receiving salaries from officials of the Moscow embassy in Rome. To counter hostile hackers and the virus of disinformation, in his address Crosetto proposes creating a "national and European center for combating hybrid warfare," which will further streamline the exchange of tools and information among allies against "cyberattacks, propaganda, information manipulation, and hostile cognitive campaigns."