A voluntary reserve as a stable component of Defense. Trained personnel recallable when needed, capable of strengthening the Italian Armed Forces in crises, emergencies, and the most challenging scenarios. This is the profile given by the “2026 Directive” for the start of the integrated cycle of performance programming and budget formation for the 2027 financial year and the 2028-2029 multi-year planning.
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The awaited reform on the Council of Ministers’ table
A snapshot that anticipates some content, while waiting for the measure, a bill, on the voluntary reserve to reach the Council of Ministers’ table. According to the latest draft, the idea is to provide for a progressive increase in the personnel of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Military Health Corps up to 40,000 units by December 31, 2033, with annual thresholds starting from 2028. The bill would provide for three reserve components: operational (military personnel discharged no more than five years ago, with availability for recall even by authority), specialist voluntary (health, IT, and technical profiles, with direct rank assignment), and territorial (volunteers aged 25 to 35, regional recruitment, deployment in emergencies and civil protection). The government is seeking the necessary financial coverage.
The first indications
The document was published on July 9. The reserve component of the Armed Forces, it is clarified, must be developed as a structural element of national defense capability, not as an occasional tool. The goal is to have a pool of trained and readily deployable personnel, capable of supporting and integrating the Armed Forces even in peacetime. The reserve must allow Defense to have more available force when needed, without having to permanently maintain all the personnel required for every possible crisis.
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Deployment from cyber to advanced technologies
“Its contribution – the document clarifies – must focus especially on sectors where specialist skills or additional forces are needed: logistics, military health, cyber, infrastructure, command and control, technical-operational support, and advanced technologies. It will be crucial, in particular, to integrate professionals from the civilian, industrial, scientific, and technological worlds, thus making available valuable skills, difficult to maintain permanently in the regular forces, but indispensable in modern operational scenarios.”
The reserve grows and shrinks based on crises
“The Reserve – it continues – must therefore be built according to criteria of readiness, modularity, economic sustainability, and scalability. It must be able to grow or shrink based on crises, activate in stages, and allow the military instrument to endure over time, regenerate, and continue to operate. In this way, the Reserve will contribute to a more flexible, more resilient, and more credible Defense, consistent with the best allied experiences and with the need for rapid expansion of the military instrument when the scenario requires it.”
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