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The Italian Air Force Wants The Next-Gen Fighter And The Original F-35 Quota To Be Restored
The need for more F-35s.
“The Italian Air Force has always believed that the F-35 aircraft is the most advanced weapon system available today, crucial to continue to guarantee capabilities that are irreplaceable for an Air Force that aspires to be strategically relevant and operationally decisive, not only in carrying out the daily national Air Defense mission, but especially to operate in conflict scenarios where we might be called upon to counter a well-equipped and heavily armed opponent determined to impose itself by any means possible.”“A hypothesis, the latter, which many, since the beginning of the 21st century, had dangerously set aside as “anachronistic” and no longer repeatable, but which the recent history has instead imposed as dramatically current. Well, with perseverance, competence and experience [..] the Air Force has always firmly advocated the need to equip itself with such an advanced weapon system, even when the F-35 was unjustly “demonized” by many as “a useless waste of taxpayers’ resources”, underestimating how the air battle, more than any other sector, has always been a clash between technologies.”
“The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation a year ago suddenly and disruptively brought back into our lives ghosts of the past now forgotten, bringing back in ours homes the dramatic images of war and destruction that catapulted the European continent back a century. Convincing ourselves that everything we are witnessing is an isolated, distant and unrepeatable event is a fatal mistake that we must not make. Suffice it to say that the war zone is as the crow flies from Italy as the Brenner from Lampedusa [i.e. from the northern part of Italy to its southernmost island].”
“This unjustifiable aggression has also demonstrated how our country has been able to promptly react with great determination, quickly activating the national military complex. The Air Force confirmed that it possesses great professionalism and responsiveness, managing to field a credible defense and deterrence tool doubling the effort of its Eurofighter fighter aircraft contingent in Romania in carrying out the mission in just 48 hours. NATO surveillance of the European skies operating in perfect synergy with the more than 100 aircraft of the Atlantic alliance launched in the early evening to protect the eastern flank of NATO”.
The General went on to say that the war in Ukraine has, once again, proved that major military operations leave no doubt about the fundamental importance of having a capable, effective, well-trained, technologically adequate Air Force, both in terms of technology and numbers: “technology alone, without proportionate numbers can do little against a numerically preponderant opponent.” For this reason, the Head of the Italian Air Force calls the country to raise awareness and put a greater attention to the existential element of each air force: the combat air component.
In order to achieve the Air Superiority, the Air Force asks for a trend reversal with respect to the choices done in the past, bringing back, rapidly, the F-35 and Eurofighter fleets, “at least to the number of aircraft that had been carefully studied before 2012.”
A Level 2 partner in the F-35 program, Rome had an original requirement for 131 planes to replace the ageing (and, for this reason, costly) AMX and Tornado fleets of the Italian Air Force, and the AV-8B+ Harrier jump jets of the Italian Navy. The number was cut by 30 percent, from 131 to 90 “as a consequence of the general economic situation, rather than as a result of scientific military analysis” as Goretti commented. The current plan, based on the 2012 cuts sees a procurement of a total of 90 F-35s: 60 F-35As and 30 F-35Bs. Out of those 30 F-35Bs, 15 will go to the Navy and 15 to the Air Force.
Goretti said that getting to the 131 quota by 2030 would be a priority.
“Beyond that” Goretti added, “I want to emphasize the importance of ensure adequate stockpiles of precision ammunition, without which military intervention risks to be inadequate and ineffective. What we are asking for is not one short-sighted escalation towards rearmament but only what is needed to defend Italy, protecting our personnel and providing them with better tools to fulfil constitutional tasks, in the shared hope we will never have to be called upon to do so”.
The Italian Air Force Wants The Next-Gen Fighter And The Original F-35 Quota To Be Restored
"If we want to be relevant, we need technology and adequate numbers" the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force said. On Mar. 8, 2023, the Aeronautica
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