(by Mario Galati) I often read in national newspapers colleagues who improvise themselves as military analysts and even more as experts in budgeting and military programs by writing about billions of euros spent on defense vehicles and infrastructures rather than building bridges and schools. Too much demagogy abused for a context, that of Defense, which deserves greater seriousness, for the high institutional task assigned to it.

To write an article that deals with complex topics such as those concerning the military world instead of listening to and reporting often incorrect and spurious news and information, just read the DPP - Multiannual Defense Policy Document -, easily available on the Dicastery website. It is a public document which, as evidenced by the Minister Guerini in the preface, "presents to the Parliament the estimate of the dicastery expenditure approved with the Budget Law. In addition to the reference financial framework, the DPP provides an update on the activities in which the Defense is involved, both in terms of forecasting and final balance. This is in line with the contents of the programmatic documents of the Dicastery and of the Policy Act with which the Minister drew up the general guidelines of Defense, with a three-year programmatic horizon, defining the Political Priorities, which the Technical-Operational and Technical-Administrative are called to follow in the use of the financial resources made available ".

The ministry's programmatic document talks about the various environments of use, including the information environment, necessary for operations on the battlefields, in the sky and at sea, but also between our cities, in collaboration with the police forces. . In a purely operational context, the most probable scenario, at the moment, is represented by the so-called "hybrid conflicts ", characterized by the use of conventional and non-conventional tactics, implemented by actors of various kinds, often supported by regional or global powers, able to operate in all operational domains, including the cyber one, also in association with terrorist actions and criminals. The contrast to this type of threat underlies an important activity of intelligence and analysis, supported by a security model capable of preventing attacks and minimizing their effects. It is in this context that the Italian Defense has initiated, in recent years, a process of adapting its infrastructures and capabilities, which in the future will require additional resources and specific skills, also in terms of highly qualified personnel, to keep up with a threat. constantly evolving.

Among the fundamental capabilities of the military instrument there is precisely the Information capacity. It is the ability to acquire, protect and process, in a fruitful way, the growing amount of information necessary for the achievement of a deeper knowledge and a greater appreciation of the situation, by political decision-makers and military leaders, in order to guarantee the necessary information superiority and decision-making timeliness. In this sector, the application of new technologies will be an enabling factor in order to obtain a computational advantage in the ability to merge, integrate, synthesize the increasing amount of data, coming from various sensors in the various domains, in order to understand and manage scenarios of increasing complexity.

From this derives the need to equip the Military Instrument with capabilities and systems, increasingly interconnected and able to inter-operate with each other, across all five current domains (terrestrial, maritime, air, space and cybernetics) and in an environment with an increasingly strong digital connotation.

MULTI-MISSION AND MULTI-SENSOR AERIAL PLATFORM

Among the capabilities and operating systems on which the Defense has decided to focus is the multi-mission and multi-sensor aerial platform, recently the subject of an article with contents not exactly close to reality. The program, of a joint nature,  it relates to a multi-mission system, based on an aerial platform Gulfstream G-550, equipped with modern sensors for strategic information collection and electronic superiority, suitable for integration into a C4ISTAR net-centric architecture for realtime information sharing, capable of operating both in an autonomous context and, above all, in a complex joint structure. In the future, the system's capabilities are expected to be extended to the Multidomain Command and Control sector as well as to the electronic protection of forces, through the in-depth discovery of the threat.

The pursues the progressive realization of the capacity by starting a first phase whose total requirement amounts to € 1.223,1 million, entirely financed on the Ordinary Budget of the Ministry of Defense. Completion will take place at a later stage, useful for benefiting from further technological development and the maturing of international cooperation agreements already in progress. The program also includes the costs relating to the Operational Configuration Maintenance (MCO) / Integrated Logistic Support (SLI) post delivery as well as the necessary logistical-infrastructural arrangements.

The aircraft in question, the CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) is a multi-sensor system with functions of air surveillance, command, control and communications, instrumental to air supremacy and support for ground forces. It is based on the Gulfstream G550 commercial platform, subsequently modified in part by the manufacturing company itself (Type A modification), and in part by the Company Elta Systems Ltd in Ashdod, Israel, with the preparation and assembly of mission systems (Type B modification). 

The information obtained from the individual sensors is analyzed and "merged" automatically, allowing a rapid and accurate acquisition and identification of objectives, target acquisition and target information - at the heart of the Early Warning function itself - with the added advantage of greater radar coverage thanks to the airborne sensor. The mission system also has the ability to conduct missions of Maritime Patrol and Battlefield Management, thanks to compatibility with i Rover systems of personnel employed on land or on the surface of the sea.

The AEW-BM & C (Airborne Early Warning, Battlefield Management & Communication) capability provided by the CAEW aircraft it represents an indispensable tool to ensure an adequate extension of the surveillance capacity of the national airspace (Homeland Defense / Security), including the management of the unconventional threat represented by the so-called "RENEGADE”And to safeguard the full capacity to support military theater operations.

To write about Defense programs, just read the DPP