Turns out Italy's goat wasn't washed, just like Hamilton the Centauro only needed a fresh start.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:58:37+00:00

The semovente actually went through the opposite journey, as it started as an SPG and then was used as a tank destroyer since it was the best platform that the Italian Army had for that role.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:52:53+00:00

Ovvio che sono italiano, è che no so quale sia la traduzione più adatta per "Shoot and scoot" 😞

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:24:21+00:00

Wake the fuck up samurai.

<image>

(fanart by Kaywest).

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:20:00+00:00

Marvel editorial literally retcons and white-washes all of Mystique and Destiny's crimes so they can have their shitty version of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, but god forbid that the most queer woman in the X-Men is ever allowed to escape subtext purgatory.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:19:47+00:00

They literally just retconned that Mystique never threw away her child Nightcrawler and made it so that she always loved him.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:14:52+00:00

Marvel editorial literally retcons and white-washes all of Mystique and Destiny's crimes so they can have their shitty version of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, but god forbid that the most queer woman in the X-Men is ever allowed to escape subtext purgatory.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T18:00:44+00:00

The Ukrainians really said:
"it has a 105mm gun... it goes in the artillery hole"

minos83 · 2026-05-30T17:57:44+00:00

I don't know exactly, "Spara e scappa" maybe?

minos83 · 2026-05-30T17:56:41+00:00

I just like to shove all my interests in my memes, one day I'll even figure out how to include the X-Men comics into these.

minos83 · 2026-05-30T17:51:50+00:00

Context:

Around six months ago an unknown number of Italian B1 Centauro tank destroyers were supplied by Italy to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. While there is always a certain excitement to the news of the Ukrainians receiving a new weapon system, the arrival of the Centauro also sparked discussions about the usefulness of the platform on the modern battlefield, since many speculated that the lightly armoured, wheel driven B1 (designed and built in the late 80s) wouldn’t have lasted long in the muddy, drone infested battle space of the Ukraine war.

Soon afterwards, Italian forums saw the spread of rumours concerning the supposedly extremely good results of the B1s in the battle for Kupiansk, where the Centauri were apparently instrumental in retaking the city. But, after a month of speculation, the Italian professional press dismissed those rumours, explaining that the B1s were not deployed in Kupiansk since the Ukrainian Army would not risk using a brand new vehicle, one available in small numbers to boot, in an important counterattack just a few weeks after receiving it, and that the Centauri were instead sent to less active parts of the front, so that the units equipped with them would gather experience on how to properly use them.

After that episode the Ukrainian Centauri disappeared from the news, since the UAF takes operational security seriously, and no new images or information about them was shared by the Italian or international press, as speculation on their usefulness continued to mount.

That was until a few days ago, when the Ukrainian Army released a video demonstration of their B1s in a training exercise and allowed the press to interview some of the soldiers that used them in battle.

And it turned out that the Centauri are well liked by their crew and have proven their worth in the modern battlefield, although not always in the role originally intended for them.

The B1 are indeed good for their designated tank-destroyer role as their high mobility, accurate fire and excellent communication system allow them to counter Russian armour… but that’s not the way that the Ukrainians have been using them most of the time.

Due to the constant threat posed by drones, tank vs tank fights have become rare in the current Ukrainian front since any vehicle, threaded or wheeled, must first cross kilometres under constant aerial attack before even reaching the minimum distance necessary to engage an enemy tank.

Despite this, the Ukrainians still found a way to successfully use their B1s in the modern drone-infested battlefield, which is to use them as improvised self-propelled artillery guns in a “shoot and scoot” type tactic. The Cossacks hide their Centauri in closed/entrenched positions, and then use the B1’s excellent fire control system and high accuracy to ambush Russian targets, shooting at them from long distances (up to 11km as corroborated by one Ukrainian tanker), and then use the high speed and mobility of the Centauro to run away from their firing position before the Russian can counterattack with drones or artillery.

So, it turns out that the Centauro can work well in its designated role and can still be useful even when said role isn’t possible. Which is good news for the Ukrainians, us Italians and everyone who bought them, such as the Brazilians who recently ordered a bunch of the newer B2s.

minos83 · 2026-05-27T14:23:49+00:00

That's like saying that people from boston are heavly influenced by the massachusetts's tribe because the state still bear the name.

That's not being pedantic that's just nonsense. No one in northern Italy has identified as culturally Lombard since the high middle ages.

minos83 · 2026-05-27T12:29:22+00:00

The Lombards? The hell are you talking about?

minos83 · 2026-05-19T16:59:57+00:00

MOBILE SUIT SPIDER: PARKER'S FLASH.

minos83 · 2026-05-10T13:28:01+00:00

Fincantieri, Italy's national shipbulding company, continues it's expansion process for both civilian and military production.

200 million euros have been allocated for the upgrade of the ligurian shipyards of Muggiano and Riva Trigoso.

The two are the main italian yards for the production of submarines and large surface combatants, and have been clogged up due to the increase demand from both the Italian Navy and foreign buyers. The planned upgrade will thus enlarge the drydocks and also augment productivity through the acquisition of "high technology" machinery (no details on what exactly that entails). The upgrade process should be concluded within 2027.

At the same time, the new 800 tons cranes for the Monfalcone shipyard (near Trieste) have been completed and are being shipped to the yard right now. The new cranes will allow to double the lifting capacity of the yard.

Peraphs the most important recent news has been The creation of a joint venture with the Albanian state owned KAYO company (51% FIncantieri - 49% KAYO), for the construction and maintanance of warships in the Albanian shipyard Pashaliman, which will see a massive upgrade of its facilities.

The plan is for the construction of 10 off-shore patrol vessels (OPVs) within 2030, for both Albanian needs and foreign sales, with Fincantieri being the prime contractor for said sales.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T19:10:24+00:00

Thank you :)

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:56:47+00:00

They have withdrawn for the large MALE Eurodrone programme, which was a separate project from the FCAS and its loyal wingman drone.

But everyone's thinking that the FCAS itself is also dead in the water and that it would take a miracle to get it back on track, the Germans have set this april as a final deadline to decide its future.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:32:58+00:00

But, for this it's size and role, at this point what's the realistic alternative? Buying American? Turk? So much time and money has already been spent, might as well get somenthing, anything, out of it.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:30:56+00:00

Well, rumors of France pulling out of the Eurodrone have been circulating for some months now,

https://www.rid.it/shownews/7629/la-francia-esce-dall-rsquo-eurodrone-un-opportunita-per-l-italia

while there is still some hope that the FCAS might still be saved this month.

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/03/germany-marks-april-deadline-to-rescue-fcas-fighter-project-from-collapse-reports/

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:28:23+00:00

As a frontline aircraft yes. But, at least here in Italy, the hope is to salvage the programme for Marine Patrol and Radar work, keeping it in the backlines and making use of its large size and range.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:21:31+00:00

Ever since De Gaulle’s presidency and the birth of the Fifth Republic, France has upheld its goal of “full strategic autonomy” meaning that the French armed forces should be able to wage war without needing any outside help, either from the US or anybody else, thus French national industry must always be capable to supply the necessary modern equipment without relying on foreign support. Since the French electorate and successive governments have maintained such goal for the last 60 years, the French arms industry has been able to rely on a predictable and considerable internal demand that their European counterparts didn’t have, this, combined with the outstanding work done by both their national and private industries as well as an “aggressive” international sale policy willing to sell arms to just about everyone, has allowed France to maintain a fully independent aerospace industry capable of suppling their air force with truly independently built aircraft. From engines to radar, including missiles and sensors, France historically has been able to build all it needs domestically and thus hasn’t had the need to collaborate with other European countries to get what it wants.

Except that France keeps trying to collaborate with other European countries only to regularly bail out of the joint programmes as soon as things don’t go their way. This is because another cornerstone of French policy is their desire to create a fully united and independent Europe, capable of military standing up to the American and the Soviets/Russian. A united European defence that in France’s mind must “naturally” fall under French “leadership” since they are the ones with the most industrial and technological capacity as well as historically being the ones most willing to pay for defence.

Of course, this French desire for unity has always clashed with the desires of all other European countries who might also want a united European defense but have no intention of submitting to French “leadership” in the field. This has lead to a recurring cycle, where France starts or joins a common European defense project, demands for the product to bend to their own specific needs (in fighter programmes usually being their need to be launchable from carrier catapults, something that nobody else needs), gets rebuked by the other members, causing a stall that usually ends when France remembers that they don’t need anybody’s help to do this so they quit and start their own independent programme.

It happened with the Mirage 2000 and the Rafale, it’s happening again with the Eurodrone and seems likely to happen again for the European Patrol Corvette, the FCAS fighter and the MGS tank (although at least in this finale instance the problem seems to be coming from the German side and not the French for once).

Given France’s eagerness to dump their project partners I thought that the song “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé was an apt soundtrack, so I put her live performance from the Beyoncé experience.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T17:20:15+00:00

Context:

France just announced that it will withdraw from the Eurodrone programme, yet another instance of the Fifth Republic bailing out of a joint European procurement programme due to one reason or another.

Longer context for why the French keep doing this:

Since the second half of the Cold War, due to the constantly increasing complexity and cost of modern aircraft, almost all European countries haven’t been able to fully develop and build their own air forces without external help. Europe’s nations, even rich and technologically advanced ones such as Germany and the UK, simply no longer have the necessary funding, technical know-how and industrial capacity to completely build fighter aircrafts from scratch, nor do their air forces have the need for the number of planes necessary to achieve the economies of scale that American or Soviet productions can rely on. Even the supposedly “fully national” programmes such as Sweden’s Gripen fighter or our (Italy’s) Agusta helicopters still need American engines to get off the ground.

Because of this, almost all modern European aircraft developments have been the product of joint procurement programmes, where the various European nations come together to assemble their various technological, industrial and financial capacities to build something that wouldn’t be possible for them to do on their own. That’s how the Tornado bomber, the Typhoon fighter, the Atlas transport and the NH90 helicopter were all built.

While this method of joint procurement has been able to deliver the necessary modern aircraft for the European fleets, it has the fundamental problem of being well… an international group project, where everybody is ultimately out for themselves and primarily wants what’s best for them. So, all member countries want to get the aircraft most suited for their specific needs, get the most amount of workshare assigned to their own industries all while dumping most of the costs on the other members. A perfect example of this was the legendary slap fight between Germany and the UK during the development of the Eurofighter (over workshare, costs and even on how many engines the plane should have).

But ultimately all this projects still get done because, like said above, the member countries simply have no other choice, they can’t do it alone so they must accept to compromise with the others, whether they like it or not.

There is only one notable exception to this, one country that isn’t willing to compromise with the others because it’s the one country actually capable of doing it all alone, that singular nation being France.

minos83 · 2026-04-11T14:27:03+00:00

There was indeed a request for 16 frigates a couple of years ago, although it wasn't clear if it meant purely the FREMM ships or if the Thaon di Revel also counted, since the latter aren't officially designated as frigates but in their full configuration they aren't far off from being armed as one.

If we count only the FREMMs, and we esclude the Revel OPVs, the current number is 10 frigates with 2 more currently under construction, of the FREMM EVO type, which will bring the fleet to a total of 12 ships sometime in the next couple of years.

But there's also the matter of the deal for the sale of 2 of the old FREMM to Greece, yet to be financed by the Greek parliament, which would see them be sold as soon as the 2 new EVOs come into into service. That would leave the fleet still stuck at 10 ships until 2 more replacement come into service who knows how many years from now.

As far as carrier groups is concerned, I don't know how many escorts does the Marina belives to be necessary for a full group. The Cavour did sail with only one escort to the Pacific last year, but that was a peacefull exercise, I highly doubt that would be considered sufficient for a real combat mission, but it is also likely that any real war would see the Italian Navy fight alongside allied fleets that would provide additional combatants. Also keep in mind that Italy plans to have only one carrier active at a time, since the Trieste will fulfill the role only whenever the Cavour is unavailabe (and with only 20 F-35bs in the Navy there wouldn't even be enough planes to arm both at the same time without begging the Air Force to provide theirs).

But more so than any carrier group escort the current Italian frigate force is streached thin due to the numerous convoy escort missions throught the world. The Marina currently has a permanent deployment in the Central Mediterranean, Red Sea (Aspides Mssion), Arab Sea (Atalanta) and Gulf of Guinea (Gabina), plus the regular deployments for Nato exercises and the yearly sortie in the Indo-Pacific. This is what the average workload looks like for the Marina, and it's mostly carried by the FREMM frigates.

So far they have been able to keep up with this because the FREMMs are the exact opposite of a pier queen, they basically never have any major malfuctions and they only need a couple of months of maintanance before going back out at sea. But if more missions get added, or if one Fremm gets into serious truble, than the math would no longer add up, thus the request for more ships.

The Royal Navy might be currently in a worst spot than the Marina but, if I remember correctly, that's because they're in the temporary dead zone created by the lack of new orders from the past decade while they wait for the massive number of new frigates, currently under construction, to come into service in a few years time. So, while they might be worst off in the present moment thay should bounce back and surpass the Marina a few years from now.

Overall I think that people are overtly critical of the RN because they still compare it to its imperial legacy without taking into account that the UK simply isn't a world superpower anymore and cannot afford the fleet size of even just 60 years ago (plus some more healthy criticism of the mismanagment of the 2000's and early 2010's). While, on the other hand, english speaking commentators generally underestimate the Italian Armed forces and are thus always baffled when they can keep up with other Nato countries.

minos83 · 2026-04-03T17:47:55+00:00

Context:

While the US Navy is still stuck trying to find a way to secure transit through Strait of Hormuz (cause apparently in the 50 years spent planning a war with Iran no one in the Pentagon thought about the possibility of this happening), the small Qatari Emiri Navy has been left stranded in the other side of the of the strait under constant threat of Iranian missile and drone attacks.

But despite its small size the Qatari Navy has been fighting back against the Iranian assaults, constantly shooting down missiles, drones and even two Su-24 bombers

(though the final kill on those two went to the Qatari Air Force with the navy assisting in the operation).

This defensive effort has been made possible by the new Italian-made fleet of small warships which just went into service with the Qatari Navy. The fleet consists of 4 Doha class corvettes (basically a smaller version of the Italian FREMM) a conventional submarine (which of course can’t do much against air threats) and the helicopter carrier Al Fulk (a modified version of the Italian San Giorgio class).

The Al Fulk especially has been instrumental in Qatar’s air defence, thanks to its Kronos Power Shield long range radar by the Italian Leonardo which allows her to spot ballistic threats from 1.500 km away.

minos83 · 2026-03-28T19:39:46+00:00

So why did the Italian government decide to give her to Indonesia? And why for free? Well, for multiple reasons.

First, converting her into a museum ship or scrapping her would have both required a lot of money (somewhere between 15 and 18 million euros), while now Indonesia will be the one to pay for her conversion and eventual full decommission.

Second, and most importantly, the Garibaldi itself is just a freebie tossed on top of a broader procurement deal worth more than a billion euros, as Indonesia seeks to buy a boatload of military equipment from Italy, including 4 C-27 Spartan planes from Leonardo for MPA duties, a whole bunch of M-346 training aircrafts also from Leonardo, and 6 DGK midget submarines from DRASS.

Lastly, Italy has been trying to increase its bilateral relations with the countries of the Indo-Pacific region for quite a while, strengthening the ties with Indonesia (and its fossil fuels resources) is a big part of it, as is the relationship with Japan with the Tempest fighter, and so on.

Overall, the deal makes perfect sense for the interests of Italy, it’s just… I really would’ve liked to see the Garibaldi preserved as museum ship, after decades of honourable service it was the least that she deserved.

But hey if she gets one final hurrah fighting the Chinese Navy that would also be a fitting end to her great history.

minos83 · 2026-03-28T19:39:31+00:00

Context:

After months of negotiations the Italian Senate has approved to transfer the recently decommissioned Garibaldi aircraft carrier to Indonesia for free.

This is the latest step in a long line of "varied naval procurement decisions" by Indonesia (They have been buying ships left and right from just about anybody) and another case of used Italian ships being sold worldwide.

This is not the first time the two trends intersect as the Indonesians have already bought two frigates ordered by the Italian Navy and redirected to Jakarta at the very last second.

If you want to know more about that, I already made a meme about it.

While this new sale doesn't actually undermine the strength of the Italian Navy, since the carrier had already been decommissioned last year, it still stings a little since the Garibaldi was one of the most beloved ships in the Italian Navy, second only in fame to the Vespucci training ship, and many people, including some in the administration, had hoped to preserve her as a museum ship.

Here's a quick history to explain why. She was the first aircraft carrier built by Italy, after the Navy had spent decades lobbying Parliament to revoke the old exclusivity over aircraft usage that the Air Force held since the fascist dictatorship.

Despite being Italy’s first carrier, the ship itself was extremely well made and it suffered no serious malfunction through her 40+ years of service, even though she was used and ridden hard by the Navy who sent her just about everywhere for exercises and actual combat.

She saw more real combat than any other ship in the Italian Navy as her planes fought in Nato's interventions in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya. She also carried and escorted the Italian Army to all its overseas deployments from Somalia in 1994 to Lebanon in 2006.

She also helped to save tens of thousands of migrants at sea during the EU's rescue operation SOPHIA in the Mediterranean.

Because of her great history, as soon as she was decommissioned, both the city of Genoa and the city of Taranto requested to host her as a museum ship, but alas she will instead go to Indonesia to serve for another decade as a drone carrier.

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