Italy has released its final defense ministry budget for 2015, showing that spending continues to decline, although once again procurement gets a hefty top-up from the coffers of Italy's industry ministry.
The budget lists a total spending by the Ministry of Defense of 13.19 billion euros, including procurement spending of 2.37 billion euros, albeit with 2.5 billion added to the procurement pot by the ministry of industry, giving a total procurement spend of 4.87 billion euros.
The two largest programs are the Eurofighter, the recipient of 768 million euros from the industry ministry, and the Joint Strike Fighter, which receives 582.7 million euros from regular defense funding.
The budget contains a full breakdown on spending per program, as distinct from the ministry's preliminary budget document, which was published in December and simply contained the total outlay.
This year, the numbers in the final budget are lower than the preliminary budget, indicating the depth of cuts made in the five months between the publication of the two documents as the Italian government seeks to free up funds.
Total MoD spending in December was 13.58 billion euros, while procurement was 2.67 billion euros — 300 million euros more than the final figure.
In the final document, Maintenance and Operations gets 1.15 billion euros and Personnel spending is 9.67 billion euros.
The final document also offers a prediction of MoD funding for 2016 and 2017. In the case of procurement, the forecasts are for a dramatic drop off, with just 1.95 billion in 2016 and 1.93 billion in 2017.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
