While the car crisis, aggravated by further US protectionist measures, puts 40,000 jobs at risk in Italy, and Italy’s public debt has climbed to 139% of GDP and is still rising, Italy’s military spending continues to grow: according to official NATO data, it will amount to around 32 billion euros in 2024, an average of around 88 million euros a day. The target the Italian government has pledged to reach and surpass in the short term is 100 million euros per day.

In order to persuade citizens to make sacrifices for an increase in military spending, the mainstream political media are sowing the seeds of fear of an imminent Russian attack on Europe. The headline in La Stampa is emblematic:

‘Sweden on alert prepares 30,000 graves for soldiers in case of war with Russia’.

In this context, Italy has signed an agreement with Britain and Japan – called the ‘Global Combat Air Programme’ – for the production of a sixth-generation fighter aircraft. By mid-2025, a joint venture between BAE Systems (UK), Leonardo (Italy) and JAIEC (Japan), whose first CEO will be a Leonardo executive, will be set up to carry out the programme.

Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica) is not only an Italian company: it is an international industrial group, whose shareholders are 38% owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and 57% by US institutional investors. It generates consolidated revenues of more than EUR 15 billion annually. The Group operates in 150 countries – mainly Italy, the United States, Great Britain and Poland – in the Aerospace and Defence sector: it produces dual-capacity conventional and nuclear fighter-bombers, drones, helicopters, and electronic and space systems. Leonardo, which acquired the Israeli company RADA Electronic Industries, is also integrated into Israel’s military-industrial system, helping to make the weapons used in the genocide of the Palestinians more lethal.

How much the Global Combat Air Programme will cost Italy to produce the sixth-generation fighter aircraft is unknown. It is estimated that the fighter’s development alone will cost each of the three partners around EUR 30 billion. However, it is known how much the fifth-generation F-35 fighter has cost the United States so far: more than 400 billion dollars, and counting, for the relentless modernisation of this dual conventional and nuclear-capable weapon system.

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This article was originally published in Italian on Grandangolo, Byoblu TV.

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

Featured image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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