Wod the Italian armed forces be able to invade Libya and secure its oil fields and ports to protect oil shipping and logi supplies to sustain its presence there?
Italy invades libya
Wod the Italian armed forces be able to invade Libya and secure its oil fields and ports to protect oil shipping and logi supplies to sustain its presence there?
On the air and sea it would be an ez win, on the ground no
Why no on the ground?
>on the ground no
I think the path to victory on the ground would be 2 fold. First they would need prep time to shore up their logistical supply chain since they are operating in a foreign country. Second they would need a much larger stockpile of ammunition. If they can bring the full might of their army than victory in taking the country is mostly assured. Holding it against the inevitable insurgency is another question.
It would all come down to political will. Italy has a population 8x the size of Libya so how all-in are they willing to go. Would they get a million fresh Italian volunteers for occupation duty? Would they be willing to stay there indefinitely? Will the Italian economy hold up and will regular Italians be willing to sacrifice?
What would be the international response, sanctions, hostile powers funneling weapons to Libyans? How brutal would the Italian's be willing to be? Is anything off the table like concentration camps or worse? Or would it be a hearts and minds campaign?
I guess Italian military procurement would shift to counter insurgency weapons, COIN Aircraft, Drones both surveillance and UCAV, MRAPS and such. I think WW2 style total war with a huge commitment behind it by the Italian people would see Libya suppressed and occupied... but that support is basically unthinkable in todays Italy.
You don't need to hold cities just oil fields that are in the middle of nowhere (so you can easily surveil eith drones since it's a desert) and the ports(those are in cities so you need a secure perimeter) and the transportation from one to the other, also logi depots
And how are you going to being that oil back to the mainland? It's going to take convoys and everything, militia can just attack the convoys and considering you're carrying fuel it's going to be pretty messy.
The contemporary italians can't even pay taxes, half of the country is on gibs, the government is non-existent and the military is welfare for wiggers. If the italian economy does not collapse in three weeks due to the strain, the amount of bribes needed to pacify everyone willing to shoot the itas would cripple it for decades.
Just read about the Italian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's eye-opening: the Itas after a while stopped fighting anyone and simply paid, paid and paid anyone who was even a theoretical danger, and a surprising amount of officers got suicided in weird and peculiar situation regarding procurement and bribes. Can't take the Southerner out of the Southerner
>he actually fell for eternal Albion propaganda
Even worse: I've met with a good share of vets from Afghanistan. For the last decade they did essentially nothing bar paying the local talibs and warlords and get points for promotion back home
>paying the local talibs and warlords
Wasn't there a story in afghanistan were french soldiers that were in charge of some area right after the italians were ambushed and had something like 10 dead soldiers. They patrolled the area with a comparatively light force because all the reports were that it was a relatively calm area with no taleb attacks, and learned after the facts that it was only because the italians were paying the talebs and they didn't tell them...
once again, anglo propaganda
https://amp.france24.com/en/20091016-french-army-denies-reports-italy-paying-bribes-taliban
Anon, Europe as a whole (except the Chads bordering Russia) is woefully unprepared for war. Just look at the French and the European allies running out of munitions for their airplanes just a few days into the Libyan intervention. No way Italy has nearly enough stockpiles or the industry to mass produce them in a short time without breaking their economy. The Libyan have nothing to lose. Years of civil war and open slave markets have conditioned them to duke it out.
>Would they get a million fresh Italian volunteers for occupation duty?
>Holding it against the inevitable insurgency is another question.
Comparing them with anything with the Occupation in Afghanistan is a mistake. Libya has a complete different geography than Afghanistan, the population is located on a few Harbor cities in a actual desert and not with mountainous terrain like Algeria or Afghanistan. Even in the Sahara they have a few chokepoints in terms of infrastructur and the main goal is the oil in the first place.
Same as with Airpower, where Air was in Afghanistan an huge effort and with the exception with a few operation extremely limited. In this cause Italian pilots could ate breakfast in Szicilia, go on a bombing run in Libya and be back at Home at Night. The proximity would be a major advantage same the terrain. Even with foreign support of the enemies it would be nearly impossible to shut the Italians down. The only risk would be terrorist back home. The 2011 military intervention in Libya and Gaddafi death is a good fact which people today "just" forget about western airpower.
If the Italian state would be interesting in the oil field, they would conduct an Air campaign with a few ground troops and mob any other Rebels group and install their local supportive goverment in place.
>Holding it against the inevitable insurgency is another question.
1) Take control of all the shit you want, like refineries, oil fields, ports and the roads and rails you need
2) Only employ italians
3) Shoot anything that moves within 20 kilometers of the stuff you want.
there.
if you have to build a new road to bypass a city that you dont want to exterminate, then do so
In fact its bot dofficult to just build a road its all flat terrain, just bypass cities apart for the roads you need to get to the port, but that would be a but of a slog since they're inside cities, but also some of the oil pipes that connect to ships are in the middle of nowhere, also you may provide logi support with cargo planes
Yes alone due the proximity
why would we do that? just chill and go to the sea, it's hot outside
>why would we do that?
To get easier access to Libyan pussy, duh
Have you ever seen their women? A gorilla with a lipstick is hotter
Pussy is pussy man, that and some of them look alright
But how does it feel though? Worst comes to worse just use a bag
It could only work with old school colonization, aka bringing in italiane or other possible pro italian people, probably Nigerian christians
Well, they're the only ones to actually do it in the past, so why not again?
y tho
it would probably end up like the Greek invasion during ww2 or the war in Ethiopia.
The army would get stuck in the desert due to general incompetence, while sanctions would destroy Italian economy.
t. Italian
Why do you expect incompetence?
Just look at Italy's performance in modern-era wars: Caporetto, the Abyssinian campaign, the Albanian and Greek invasions...
We have never been an imperialistic and war waging nation such as Germany or the USA, and we have always underscored in recent conflicts.
Again, I couldn't imagine a successful invasion of a neighboring nation that already BTFO us with Gheddafi.
And yet you miss the Turkish-Italian war and the Sansui revolt getting quashed
I can't speak for the Sansui revolt, but the 1911 war surely wasn't a massive success. Our army turned out to be quite a mess, being way more underdeveloped if compared to the one's of other European powers.
Just read the letters wrote at the time by Giovanni Giolitti (PM and most influential politician in Italy before WW1), and you'll notice which were our strengths and our main weaknesses.
Also, if you're interested in Italy's modern history, I suggest you to take a look at "La storia d'Italia" by Indro Montanelli, which explains really well the reasons why our imperialistic dreams never came true.
it's not impossible to rule italians but it would be pointless
They land in Libya, turn 180 degrees and go frick up Carthage again
>Wait! We're Tunisia now!
Nice try, Carthaginian.
Only if you do it with Germany
Afrika Korps kino
No, because there is zero(0) political will in Italy to conquer anything. That's why your tread is is just fricking stupid and so are the anons ITT.
The Italian army Is a peace corp made entirely for defensive purpose, they are not equipped for an offensive war because of the Italians constitution
How does that translate in their equipment and organization?
Strong navy, insanely strong air force, good special forces, decentely trained regular army and almost no artillery and tanks.
We can not say a lot about their tactics because they have been in only two modern wars(Serbia and Libya) and in both their air force destroyed their enemy meanwhile the rest of their army did almost nothing.
We would just embarass ourselves like always. Our military is a joke. Only our SOF units are good.
Why is it a joke?
it would be messier than mamma's spaghetti and meatballs