11 maneuver brigades (1 tank, 5 mech inf, 1 cav, 1 paratroopers, 1 airborne, 2 mountain)
3 sof units + 1 sof helis
1 utility aviation br (distributed among the various brigades)
COMFOP SUD -napoli
-mech inf br - campania calabria --garibaldi
-mech inf br - sardegna --sassari (no arty/no recon)
-mech inf br - puglia --pinerolo-mech inf br - sicilia --aosta
-mech inf br - roma/lazio --granatieri di sardegna (very small just 3 mech inf bat and 1 horse unit)
COMFOP NORD -padova
-paratroopers light infantry br - toscana --folgore
-tank br - veneto --ariete
-cavalry br - veneto/friuli --pozzuolo del friuli (has bt lagunari)
COMTA -bolzano
-light mountain infantry -piemonte (1 bt l'aquila) --taurinense-light mountain infantry -veneto/trentino --julia
COMFOTER COE -rome
-airmobile infantry - emilia romagna --friuli (2 transport heli bt, 2 attack heli bt)
-special forces reg -montorio veronese --4 alpini paracadutisti
-special forces reg -camp darby --9 col moschin
-special forces reg -livorno --185 rrao
-cargo/utility helis -1reg viterbo, 1bat lamezia terme, 1bat elmas,1hq bat bolzano, 1 bat turin ...)
-sof helis -viterbo --aldebaran
I don’t understand why the battalions inside a brigade are all spread out and distant from each other and from their support batallions instead of being close
I'd imagine its really just to spread out the jobs around the country.
They hire on a national basis and then “deploy” you, so what you’re saying doesn’t make sense
bases generate jobs outside of just the soldiers. Cleaning, maintenance, etc. Soldiers moving to more remote areas also will spend their income on those areas, and pay taxes to those areas. For less populated areas, a military base can be very important for their economy.
>1 tank, 5 mech inf, 1 cav
What's the difference between them? Aren't tanks cav?
See
>mech inf br - sardegna --sassari (no arty/no recon)
>mech inf br - roma/lazio --granatieri di sardegna (very small just 3 mech inf bat and 1 horse unit)
>cavalry br - veneto/friuli --pozzuolo del friuli (has bt lagunari)
these are likely dump / roundout units
>11 maneuver brigades (1 tank, 5 mech inf, 1 cav, 1 paratroopers, 1 airborne, 2 mountain)
more like 9 brigades
because of force generation cycles, it is more useful to count battalions when considering European armies
now, the following is just MY SPECULATION:
>Friuli
1 airborne infantry
>Folgore
1 cavalry, 3 para
together, these two can generate 1 or 2 airmobile battalions for war, or various task forces for minor ops
>COMTA (Taurinense and Julia)
2 cavalry, 6 mountain battalions
mainly garrison the mountainous north
>Pozzuolo
1 cavalry, 1 marine
rounds out the Italian Navy's San Marco Marine Brigade (not shown here)
>Aosta
The Sicilian garrison, 1 cavalry, 3 mech inf wheeled
>Pinerolo
The Southern garrison, 1 cavalry, 3 mech inf wheeled
>Sassari
The Sardinian garrison, 1 mech inf wheeled, 2 motor infantry
these garrison formations are unlikely to be very expeditionary
they can perhaps contribute 1 or 2 IFV battalions for war
>Ariete
1 cavalry, 2 tank, 1 mech inf tracked
will most likely "absorb" 1 or 2 of the other brigades to round out for war, elements of Garibaldi and Granatieri di Sardegna probably
>Garibaldi
1 cavalry, 1 tank, 2 mech inf tracked
>Granatieri di Sardegna
1 cavalry, 1 mech inf tracked, 1 motor infantry
from this you can easily generate an armoured brigade comprising 1 cavalry, 1 or 2 tank, and 2 or 3 mechanised
overall the Italian Army's dispositions are mainly geared for defence as far as I can tell
>Aren't tanks cav
no
cavalry are recon units
in European armies they're typically made up of wheeled recon vehicles; in the Italian Army they use Centauros
the US Army used to use Bradleys and Humvees, not sure what they field now
>and 1 horse unit
Probably ceremonial
It's the centauros
Why is Aosta, from the North, stationed in Sicily?
>105/120 mm gun
Centauro don't sound like recon to me
Look at the armour; Centauro isn't a tank
Recon formations typically carry ATGMs and/or cannons to give cover fore to their scouts or attack enemy tanks and targets of opportunity with
I don't know, tradition most likely
Eg. The oldest British Army regiment is the Coldstream Guards; Coldstream is a tiny unimportant village on the border of Scotland and England, but it is where the unit originated and wintered sometime during the English Civil War.
so let's put this all together
>Friuli
>Folgore
1 cavalry, 4 airborne battalions
>Pozzuolo
1 infantry (+ 3 marine battalions not shown)
>COMTA
2 cavalry, 6 mountain infantry battalions
>Garrisons
2 cavalry, 9 infantry battalions
>Ariete + Central Italy
3 cavalry, 3 tank, 4 mech + 1 motor infantry
totals:
>4 airborne infantry
>4 marine infantry
>6 mountain infantry
>7 cavalry
>3 tank
>4 mechanised infantry (Dardo)
>10 wheeled or motor infantry (Freccia / Lince)
In the event of war, you can usually mobilise 1/4th-1/3rd of the army relatively quickly, maybe 1/2th given a bit more time
also, 3-company battalions typically get rounded out to 4-company battalions in war, adding 1 reserve company from another formation
so this gives the following:
>Strategic / Reserve Forces
1 airborne battalion
1 marine battalion
supporting cavalry companies
2 wheeled/motor infantry
>infantry brigade
1 cavalry battalion
2 mountain infantry
1 wheeled/motor infantry
>armoured brigade
1 cavalry battalion
1 tank battalion
1 mechanised infantry battalion (Dardo)
1 wheeled infantry battalion (Freccia)
to achieve the 1 Division expected of a West European NATO country
Looking at Ukraine right now it seems a very small army, but it’s also to be noted that Italy doesn’t have likely enemies that will invade it by land and doesn’t plan on doing expeditionary action, so it doesn’t really need much of a land army, in fact it also has almost exclusively Cold War era land vehicles aside from centauro and lince
I’d also want to see how the squad and platoon are organized, because if they don’t have atgms at platoon level its a bit weak in that aspect, I’d also like to see if they have MG platoon
>Looking at Ukraine right now it seems a very small army
Yes, because Italy also has to maintain significant naval and air forces, and its military budget is smaller and dwindling
(Ukraine's military budget had always been ~2% and shot up to 3.5% after 2015, and they don't have much of a navy)
About that, how’s Italy Air Force and navy?
They have two aircraft carriers, one of which has an F-35B airwing
>Italy: $2.16 trillion
>Ukraine: $200.1billion (pre-war)
Lol
It's cheap to run large numbers of mechanised infantry in a poor country.
And when your war is subsidized by a bunch of other countries.
Ukraine had a large land army even before Feb 2022.
This
Italy is blessed (and cursed with one of most defensive geographies: 90% bordes is sea, and remaining 9% 3000m+ moumtains. They realisitcaly need 2 mech divisions to defend choke points, 2 alpine divisions to patrol Alps, and Airborne for rapid deployments. Rest can be Navy and Airforce. And all things considered, they have preaty good Airforce: 84 Tornados, 94 Tayphoons, 75 F35 on order.
I just typed like a drunk schico.
Where can I learn about air and naval warfare, I know a lot about land warfare but not much about the other 2
>lince
Huh. Never heard of this fully bastard before
So what do people people here think about the Italian army’s structure, toe, training and sustainment?
They're not doing a very good job in the Med
no marines? somebody told me that italy had a pretty good euro navy
It’s the lagunari, they’re in the first pic
>Rare NATO symbol
Neat.
Why is it arty btw
ceremonial gun perhaps
kino comercial
holy shit