More and more Italian arms abroad: licenses for export went over 7,6 billion in 2024
In 2024, the Government approved a significant increase in licences for the sale of Italian arms abroad: almost 8 billion overall (also considering intermediations), of which 7.6 billion (+1.4 billion in one year) from individual authorisations and global licences. Exports to authoritarian countries or countries with human rights violations and also to Ukraine at war continue; if the worsening amendment to Law 185/90 currently under discussion is confirmed, this could be the last Annual Report with a good degree of transparency.
The data on Italian military exports for 2024 recently submitted to Parliament, through the Annual Report required by Law 185/90, show that our country’s military industry is profiting as well from the global climate of rearmament. In fact, overall export authorisations are growing significantly, which in the coming years will result in a large increase in revenues for arms manufacturers from sales to foreign countries.
For the year 2025 – as was the case last year – the Meloni government must be credited with having sent the report required by law practically on time, the obligation would be to present it to parliament by 31 March, not replicating the serious delays of previous governments. It should then be considered positive that the Annual Report continues to be drawn up with a coherent structure and that, despite the immense number of pages, it allows those who know how to read it to obtain meaningful data. It’s worth noting that some small reading improvements that the public administrations adopted a few years ago, also at the urging of our networks, organisations and campaigns, have been maintained. There remains, however, a serious threat on the horizon: if the change in the law currently being debated in Parliament, which aims to reduce transparency control, is confirmed, the 2025 Report could be the last annual one to include many of the data and details that are crucial to understanding the dynamics of Italian military exports. Especially as regards the data on the support of credit institutions for export receipts. For this reason, the Italian Peace Disarmament Network once again raises the call for the dissemination and support of the campaign ‘No more favours for arms dealers’.
ITALIAN ARMS EXPORTS IN 2024
In 2024, the growth in total military export authorisations, i.e. how much the Italian government has authorised following requests for foreign sales contracts from our companies, has increased dramatically. Last year, the total value of licences issued for the transfer of armament materials was Euro 8,69 billion: Euro 7,94 billion referred to exports and brokering while Euro 743 million to imports (excluding intra-EU EU/EEA movements). An assessment with respect to 2023 shows a continuation of the trend of a significant increase in individual export authorisations (those issued to individual countries for specific weapon systems), which increased by 35% to a total of EUR 6,45 billion. This specific form of arms export authorisation drives the overall total of pure licences of just under 7,7 billion, which is an increase of 23,5% compared to 2023 and a whopping 57% compared to 2022! This is because there is only a slight decrease (-15%, from 1.47 billion to 1.23 billion) in global licences for both project and transfer for structured co-productions with EU-NATO countries. Once again, the unclear, in their nature, brokerage licences that we consider as part of exports continue their swinging trend with an increase from 87 to 257 million (it was 397 in 2022) remaining at a higher level than the average of previous years. The already reported continuous growth in individual licences pushes the overall figure to a new increase in total Italian military exports of 25% overall, from 6.311 million Euro in 2023 to 7.948 million Euro in 2024 (it was 5.289 million Euro in 2022). These numbers confirm the trends also highlighted by recent SIPRI assessments (based on multi-year indicators capable of ‘spreading’ the effect of the licences issued in each single year), which showed a huge increase in the last two five years of the Italian international arms trade of 132% (Italy ranks sixth in the global ranking by country).
“We have not yet reached the peaks of a decade ago, resulting from mega-contracts for very complex weapons systems, but the growing trend, especially of individual authorisations, shows us how the attempt is to profit more and more every year on the growth of global military expenditure, especially for weapons systems” comments Francesco Vignarca, Campaign Coordinator of the Italian Peace Disarmament Network. “It is also important to underline how the significant increase in individual authorisations has also led to a growth in the imbalance between exports to NATO European Union countries, which should instead be a priority, and exports outside these political and military alliances of Italy”.
From the point of view of the deliveries actually recorded by the Customs Agency, the extended timeframe is confirmed, also for production and logistical reasons, compared to the time when the authorisation document was granted). In 2024, actual final exports recorded a countervalue of 3,58 billion, a decrease both compared to the 4,63 billion of 2023 and in relation to the 5,5 billion of 2022. We are however at a level well above the usual average recorded before 2021, and the robust overall increase in authorisations will lead to a significant increase in this figure in the coming years. Considering also Temporary Exports and Re-Exports, the overall total of the countervalue of arms leaving Italy in 2024 is about 4 billion Euro (a significantly lower figure compared to the rather inflated military export value ‘estimates’ circulated by the industry…).
RECIPIENTS OF ITALIAN ARMS IN 2024
The number of countries to which Italian arms export authorisations were issued grew significantly in 2024, reaching a remarkable total of 90 states (they were 83 and 82 in 2023 and 2022), probably also due to the increase in the overall number of authorisations: a jump to 2.569 against 2.101 in 2023. In 2024, unlike in the four most recent years, only one country (Indonesia) obtained authorisations with a total value of more than EUR 1 billion, while there were 15 countries with values between EUR 100 million and EUR 1 billion.
Behind the aforementioned Indonesia are France (591 million), Nigeria (as much as 480 million), the UK, Germany and several NATO countries in pools of over 300 million each, while above 200 million are problematic states such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, North Macedonia, India and Ukraine.
As already emphasised, the value of intra-EU transfers and exports to NATO countries fell to 44.1 % of the total, while the remaining 55.9 % of exports involved non-EU/NATO countries, a worrying trend that goes against the very spirit of the law.
In the Report, the Government notes that Indonesia (which was in 35th place in 2023) now ranks first due to the over one billion licence for new ships produced by Fincantieri; that a problematic state such as Nigeria has risen from 16th to 3rd place (mainly due to the order on M346 aircraft); that France, the United Kingdom and Germany continue to be among the top 5 recipients, in line with the trends of previous years; that there was a drop in exports to Ukraine, which fell from 2nd to 11th place, with licences worth EUR 222 million.
The Government also reports that Israel does not appear in the 2024 data, as the characteristics of the Israeli intervention in Gaza led the UAMA National Authority not to grant new export authorisations under Law 185/1990. However, this did not stop the continuation of previous supplies. “While it is true that no new export authorisations were granted to Israel in 2024” comments Giorgio Beretta, an analyst at the OPAL Observatory “it should however be noted that the Customs Agency’s report shows 212 export transactions of military equipment to Israel for a total value of €4,208,757.78, which therefore refer to licences issued previously. Furthermore, in 2024, the interchange of military materials between Italy and Israel continued: in fact, 42 new licences for the import of armaments to our country were issued for 154,937,788.90 euros and, again in 2024, 37,289,708.23 euros were physically imported from Israel”.
According to the data commentary notes presented in the introductory section of the Report to Parliament, in 2024 too, the ‘materials’ category constituted, both in terms of total value and number of items, the majority type of exported items (81,31 %), followed by ‘technologies’ (11,97 %), ‘services’ (3,38 %) and ‘spare parts’ (3,34 %). The top 15 exporting companies in 2024 had a financial weight of 89,01 % on the total of authorisations: at the top of Italian military exports we find Leonardo SpA (27,67 %), FINCANTIERI SpA (22,62 %), Rheinmetall Italia SpA (6,60 %), MBDA Italia S.P.A. (6,25 %), which alone account for about 63,14 % of the total monetary value.
