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Italy can participate in the operation in the future
Italy can participate in the operation in the future
Germany is leading the initiative that provides for the creation of a “protection missile shield” for Europe and has signed in Brussels, together with the defense ministers of 14 other NATO countries and Finland, a letter of intent to launch the operation in which also Italy may participate in the future. The development of the “European Sky Shield Initiative” provides for the joint acquisition, by the countries involved, of military defense equipment and missiles to strengthen NATO’s integrated air and missile defense structure.
This decision was taken with the intention of making the current air defense system in Europe more efficient in view of a worsening of the international geopolitical situation, especially on the front of the war between Russia and Ukraine and in response to threats of attack by of the Kremlin. Involved in this initiative are mainly Eastern European nations due to a greater proximity to the territories attacked by Russia and, in addition to Finland, there are also Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Hungary while, the only “Western” countries so far affected by the project are Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, waiting for Italy, which could be part of it in the next months.
The defense program platform, in fact, is open and renewable, so as to allow other nations to participate to integrate the operational network. The management of the operations also sees the participation of the United States and France which, however, have decided not to sign, for now, the agreement, because it intends to make its own national defense system more complete, while remaining strictly connected to the general military structure of NATO.
The definition of the European air defense program took place in the same days in which most of the European countries and NATO are engaged in routine military exercises that will see the use of aircrafts capable of carrying nuclear warheads that will fly over the skies all over Europe naturally with non-triggered weapons on board. These exercises, despite being carried out every year and in the same way, have never been considered as useful as in this period, precisely because of the continuous nuclear threats from Moscow.
In the meantime, despite being out of the group of signatory countries of the pact for the European anti-missile shield, Italy is already part of an integrated defense system, called MAMBA, in collaboration, above all, with France and has also joined the Twister project (Timely Warning and Interception with Space-based Theater Surveillance) together with Germany itself, active in practically all common defense programs, Spain, Holland and Finland. This program involves the construction, by the European company MBDA and the Italian company Leonardo, an endo-atmospheric interceptor to recognize in good time, aerial threats from new generation devices and extremely complex technology weapons that can hit Europe, starting from 2030, the year in which the development of the project is expected, onwards.
All the common defense programs under development in Europe represent the direct effect of the presence of NATO and, consequently, of the United States on the territories of the old continent defined as strategic and make even more evident the American influence on the military decisions of the countries of Europe, otherwise still too disunited for a constant understanding, for the purposes of a geo-political stability. The situation of the war in Ukraine in recent weeks is not easy to interpret because, after the annexation by Russia, of some regions of Ukraine and the subsequent advance of the defense forces of the invaded country, in the process of recovering the lost territories, the feeling that the conflict could suddenly degenerate becomes more and more clear. The creation of common defense programs for Europe such as the missile shield, the MAMBA and the Twister, will serve to be ready in the unfortunate eventuality that the Russian attacks may be aimed at the west part of the continent.