General Pietro Serino will be the new Army Chief of Staff. The alternation with General Salvatore Farina will take place within a couple of weeks, with the expiry of the three-year mandate (with no possibility set at February 27, without the possibility of renewal. Despite the political crisis and the complex phases of the formation of the new government, the appointment by the Council of Ministers, chaired by Mario Draghi , arrived in time to guarantee the handover, on the proposal of the confirmed minister Lorenzo Guerini. On Serino’s roadmap, the task of leading the Army in a complex context for the Italian defense, in contrasting rapidly evolving threats, in the modernization process of the military instrument, as well as in the logistic operation of distributing the vaccine, on which the Armed Forces are already on the front line. THE PROFILE
Roman, born in 1960, General Serino has been head of the cabinet of the Minister of Defense since October 2018, with Elisabetta Trenta and then Lorenzo Guerini . Before arriving at Palazzo Baracchini he was commander for the training, specialization and doctrine of the Army, also based in Rome. Previously, on behalf of the then minister Roberta Pinotti, he chaired the steering committee for the implementation of the Defense White Paper, the document aimed at adapting the military instrument to the new challenges and threats. In the three-year period 2013-2016 he was head of the General Office for Planning, Programming and Budget of the Defense Staff, who came to the post after having headed the General Planning Department of the Army. In the past he also held the position of Army Attache at the Italian Embassy in Washington. THE LEGACY
Serino will take the place of General Farina, who arrived at the Army building in 2018, after two years in command of the Joint Force Command of NATO in Brunssum, in the Netherlands. Farina will leave the top of the Armed Force in a complex moment for the entire Italian defense. The emergence of new challenges and threats (hybrid and technologically advanced), added to the traditional ones (which see the Army involved in many theaters abroad), has long required a greater focus on modernization, to be translated into investments in new capabilities. . Just a couple of weeks ago, Farina presided over the presentation of the “Prospecta” report, launched by the Army precisely to outline the technological and operational needs, so as to create new and stronger synergies with the industry, including robots, drones and 5G. THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE
And the challenge of technological innovation in the military field, which in technical terms can be summarized in the concept of “multi-domain operations”, Mdo. The Army is also focusing on this (here a recent debate with Farina), for a much more flexible strategic approach than the traditional one, based on perfect knowledge of one’s own abilities and on the creation of different alternatives for action. Thus we go beyond the concept of joint forces, to operate in all domains of action: land, sea, air, space and cyber. The “Land capacity development for multi-domain operations” work program of the Army General Staff was born on this basis. OBJECTIVE OF MODERNIZATION
Of course, investments and resources are needed to be able to proceed along these lines. In January of last year, from the headquarters of the General Secretariat of Defense, Farina noted that “the Army is ready, capable, healthy and capable of carrying out its duties”. The problem is “how long it can remain like this and with what quality of technologies to counter or even before dissuade the opponent”. Hence the warning: “If no major action is taken within five years to reverse the trend of undercapitalization, the Army will not have the same capabilities as today and some will be lost forever.” For this reason, Farina relaunched the idea of a “terrestrial law”, similar to the one that initiated the renewal of the armed force in 1977, estimated at five billion in six years. In the last year, despite the pandemic, the defense budget has grown, with positive signs on the balance between the Personnel (traditionally predominant) and the Business and Investment (traditionally underfunded) items. Yet the road to ensuring programmatic and financial continuity still seems long.THE OTHER ADVANCEMENTS OF 2021
All this will now be dealt with by the new Army Chief of Staff, whose appointment came one month after the alternation between the outgoing Giovanni Nistri and the incoming Teo Luzi in the position of commander general of the Carabinieri. Indeed, it was the Meritorious who opened a year full of changes at the top of the Armed Forces, which are now awaiting the Draghi executive. It was necessary to wait until the last months of the year for the Air Force (on October 31st the three years of General Alberto Rosso will end ) and for the Defense Staff, with General Enzo Vecciarelliexpiring on 6 November and the planned transfer, if alternation is confirmed, to an exponent of the Navy. They are joined by General Nicolo Falsaperna , who in October will have to leave his post as Secretary General of Defense and National Armaments Director. The process is the same for everyone. The appointments come from the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of Defense, all with suitable times to guarantee the handover before the end of their respective mandates.
