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They cross-fund procurement from the budget of the Ministry of Industry lately, basically for economic stimulus
I guess that's probably as effective short term strategy, but all the stuff they're buying carries some pretty serious ongoing costs. This isn't just a pile of guns you can put in a warehouse. Things that float or fly require sizable ongoing investments into training, manning, maintainence, even fuel can be a big cost.
I hope the Italians aren't digging a bigger hole than they can fill.
They replace older units one-for-one with newer, less maintenance-prone and less manning-intensive units, which keeps those costs down somewhat. For example Trieste will have only 460 crew (vs 775 for Guiseppe Garibaldi - retired once Trieste comes in - and comparable to the 486 for Cavour), and the last two FREMMs with 308 crew together replace destroyers with 760 crew. As such related ongoing investment costs should stay at similar levels as now if not even going down.
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