Italy’s government is moving to reshape the architecture of its military intelligence, giving the current defense intelligence branch a new structure and a more explicit cyber dimension.
The big picture: The changes are contained in a defense bill approved last week at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the proposal of Defense Minister Guido Crosetto.
- The bill, which largely amends Italy’s Military Code, is designed to strengthen and adapt the country’s national defense capabilities.
What changes: The government wants to reorganize both the top command structure of the armed forces and the military intelligence component operating within it.
- The current Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff position would be split into two roles: a Deputy Chief of Staff overseeing the Defense Staff and a second Deputy Chief of Staff with operational functions.
- Both would report directly to the Chief of the Defense Staff.
- The existing Committee of Chiefs of Staff would also be renamed the “Committee of Chiefs” and formally designated as the Defense Minister’s highest advisory body.
The intelligence piece: The most significant change concerns the Defense Staff’s Intelligence and Security Department, known in Italian as the “Reparto informazioni e sicurezza dello Stato maggiore della Difesa.”
- The government’s language is concise but consequential: the existing intelligence and security department “assumes the name of Joint Cyber Intel Command.”
- The provision therefore does more than create an additional cyber unit alongside the existing military intelligence structure. It places cyber directly in the identity of the body responsible for intelligence and security within the Defense Staff.
What else: The reform would also create a new Joint Training Center for Combat and Countering Hybrid Threats, directly under the Chief of the Defense Staff.
- That puts another emerging security domain — hybrid warfare — inside the reorganization of Italy’s joint military architecture.
- The center would focus specifically on training for combat and “countering the hybrid threat,” according to the government text.
Why it matters: The measures collectively indicate a shift towards a more integrated military command structure, centered around intelligence, cyber capabilities, hybrid threats, and joint operations.
- The reform also strengthens the central role of the Chief of the Defense Staff: the revamped Cyber Intel Command and the new hybrid-threat training center would sit within a structure ultimately reporting to the country’s top military officer.
The bottom line: Rome is not creating a new intelligence service.
- It is reshaping the military intelligence component already embedded in the Defense Staff — while explicitly bringing cyber intelligence into its institutional identity and pairing the change with a new joint structure focused on hybrid warfare.
- The bill must now go through Parliament before the changes can enter into force.
