I was looking forward posting that later and tagging you! 1000 is a very large number and way higher than expected, even if it includes the command, CASEVAC, and mortar carrier versions. The Italian Army will have one of the largest fleets of tracked IFVs in NATO, and as you wrote one of the two “German” routes should be the chosen one.

I wonder how they will be distributed among the various brigades, because the number seems to be greater than the needs of the current heavy brigades. In the current structure of the Italian Army there are three types of brigades: heavy, medium and light ones.

Among the heavy brigades: the “Ariete” Armored Brigade, which in spite of its name, should receive two tank regiments, each one made up of four companies of Leopard 2A8s; the “Garibaldi” Bersaglieri Brigade, which will retain its tank regiment consisting of three companies of Arietes, upgraded to the C2 version.

In 2022/23 it seemed clear that the “Granatieri di Sardegna” Mechanized Brigade would be fully equipped and become a twin of the “Garibaldi” - it saw the creation of a new mechanized regiment that is waiting to receive the new tracked IFVs. Instead, over the recent weeks there have been rumors that the “Sassari” Mechanized Brigade will become a heavy brigade, thus with the acquisition of tracked IFVs and the reestablishment of a tank regiment, obviously in Sardinia, which could be logistically convenient in case of missions that require sending tanks overseas. If the Arietes currently under option are also going to upgraded to the C2 standard and so many tracked IFVs are acquired it might be possible that there will be four heavy brigades.

The medium brigades (wheeled vehicles only) equipped with Centauro and Freccia will remain the two fully formed today: the “Pinerolo” and “Aosta” Mechanized Brigades, which, however, will need additional Freccias to fully equip all their mechanized regiments. As for the light brigades, the “Julia” and “Taurinense” Mountain (Alpini) Brigades stated their need for 231 BvS 10s to replace their current Bv206 fleet but there is no news about this at the moment. The “Folgore” Paratroopers Brigade and the Army Special Forces Command will receive new batches of GMV Flyers to go along with their VTLM-2s. The latter, of which 2300 units are to arrive over the next decade, is used by the “Friuli” Airmobile Brigade too. Army’s marines (the “Lagunari” Regiment of the “Pozzuolo del Friuli” Cavalry Brigade) and Navy’s marines (“San Marco” Marine Brigade) will need a total of 144 Iveco SuperAVs to replace their old AAVTP-7A1s and expand their amphibious armored vehicles fleet to meet NATO requirements, although only 36 have been ordered so far.

MilitaryLand published an article about how the 47th Mechanized Brigade, during its training in Germany in the early 2023, trained with M1A1 Abrams as well as with M2A2 Bradleys, but the training of tank crews took longer than expected and the transfer of tanks was not approved in time, so the brigade’s tank battalion remained in Germany.

At that point the Ground Forces Command assigned to it a tank battalion of the 1st Tank Brigade, that was equipped with Leopard 2A6s and had recently returned to Ukraine after training. They are still very good tanks, but there were obvious problems: first, the fact that the tankers from the 1st Tank Brigade transferred to the 47th Mechanized Brigade have had little time to train together with the rest of the brigade. This would match with a statement by an UAV operator from the 47th Brigade who revealed that the first Leopard lost in action during the counteroffensive was hit by friendly fire from an unit of the National Guard engaged in the action, but due to crew negligence. Also, the 1st Tank Brigade did not receive 31 Leopard 2A5/6s, as originally thought, to equip an entire battalion, but probably had only one squadron/reinforced company, I think around 18 tanks. The 10 Leopard 2A5s (Strv 122), along with a handful of Leopard 2A6s, went to form the tank company of the 21st Mechanized Brigade.

In general, the 47th Brigade has had a troubled history regarding gear: it was born as a reconnaissance battalion, became the 47th Assault Regiment, specialized for urban combat, then reformed to become the 47th Mechanized Brigade, at first one of the many that Ukraine raised in late 2022. It had begun training with MaxxPro MRAPs when it was chosen that this brigade would be the spearhead of the counteroffensive and was set to receive the best equipment available, spending months training in Germany with US trainers from the 1st Infantry Division.

And by now I almost came to think that the story that they received Slovenian M-55s was a psyop or something similar, maybe to underestimate the real capabilities and tasks of the brigade. These tanks were likely never received by the 47th Brigade but were assigned to the 67th Mechanized Brigade to form its tank battalion. Interesting enough, the 67th Brigade then appears to have been re-equipped with T-64BVs and the M-55s seem to have disappeared from the front line for several months already.

P.S. The deliveries to Ukraine of 14 Leopard 2A4s from German stocks funded by the Netherlands and Denmark have begun. So it means that Ukraine, including losses, will receive 54 Leopard 2A4s in total. In early 2023 it was said that Leopard 2A4s were to equip a tank battalion of the 4th Tank Brigade. This battalion was later detached from this brigade and moved to the 33rd Mechanized Brigade. So it means that Ukraine, if it doesn’t replenish the losses of the 33rd Brigade, has almost a battalion of Leopard 2A4s in reserve. As for the nearly 200 incoming Leopard 1A5s, the first batches were used to form the tank battalion of the new 44th Mechanized Brigade. Recently, pictures (have to use Twitter as Nitter doesn’t seem to work today) have come out that see them also in service with the 25th Airborne Brigade, which probably received them to expand its tank company formed by T-80BVs. It’s assumed that the 5th Tank Brigade (which is being created) will largely have these tanks, and possibly I imagine some of the existing brigades could receive a battalion of Leopard 1A5s to replace the losses of Soviet ones, or perhaps they will go to equip some of the new five mechanized brigades being formed.

Sorry for posting before you got the chance haha.

Lol don’t worry - hadn’t even started writing anything, you’ve done well to post it.

How many M113s does Italy still have? To me 1000 new AFVs sounds like its even more than the Dardos and M113s taken together.

I am not aware of the exact number, but the army should have a few hundred vehicles derived from the M113. And you are definitely right than 1000 is bigger than the sum of Dardos and M113s! That said, 200 Dardos was a shameful low number.

In regards to variants, I imagine Italy will also be looking at SPAAG variants.

I very much hope so.

Speaking of the SuperAV, Iveco is in the run for the new wheeled recon vehicle for the German army, alongside the Pandur EVO, Patria and the Fuchs. I personally hope for some cooperation here. The German navy wants to build up amphibious capabilities again. The SuperAV would be a perfect fit here too.

Didn’t know that, nice to hear! I hope there will be more and more cooperation between Iveco and Leonardo and German companies. A few Italian milbloggers would have liked to see SAMP/T, AW-249 and Centauro 2 adopted by the German Armed Forces in exchange for Italian purchases of German gear, but it’s clear that Germany is not looking forward acquiring any of these systems, either because it wants alternatives (as in the first case) or is not doctrinally interested in them (the other two cases).

Not an expert in that, the caliber of the gun is smaller but more importantly the protection is far less than that provided by the Leopard 2A4/5/6s and this has also been the subject of criticism by Ukrainian observers. In any case, the role of these tanks will match Ukraine’s current defensive posture (so mainly for infantry support) - they are not going to be used to spearhead armored offensives.

However, you have to fight with what you have, I guess. There is a video showing the new 154th Mechanized Brigade training with a T-62M, almost certainly one of those captured from the Russians.

Actually no, the Italian Army still has mechanized regiments that have to field VTLM Lince due to a lack of IFVs. And a lot, also, depends on the share of armored units among the total army’s units.

40 years ago the Italian Army had 240 thousand men, 1500 tanks, 4000 M113s, etc. I would agree with an expansion of manpower and a creation of new brigades, but the purchase volumes that have been planned are more than manageable with the current number of manpower or at a bit higher, bringing existing brigades up to full equipment.

Reintroducing conscription is not on the agenda in Italy nor is it seriously discussed. The Italian Armed Forces, unlike many others, have no recruiting problems. In 2022 there were more than 12k vacancies in the Army and nearly 75k people applied. In the Navy the ratio is even higher. If Italy wanted to raise new brigades, it could do so with few problems when it comes to manpower, unlike many other NATO countries, at least if conscription is not reintroduced in these.

The number of Freccias to my knowledge is set to be raised to 381 units but at the moment orders are still well below that. On production levels I agree, tailor-made plants should be set up in order to be as productive as possible. At the moment, for example, production of Centauros is too slow in relation to orders.

Thank you! That said there are still M113-derived vehicles in service which were not counted here.

I think the numbers will depend a lot on the future status of the “Sassari” Mechanized Brigade, on whether it will become heavy or remain a medium one.