Missiles for Samp-T, Italy will increase production by 40% this year and 100% next year

In 2026, the European consortium Mbda will double its production of missiles for Samp-T, the missile system that Italy has also supplied to Ukraine. This was announced by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, interviewed by Quarta Repubblica on Monday 26 May 2025. "The Italian industry that deals" with missile production "will increase production by 40 per cent this year and 100 per cent next year," he explained. "But the first deliveries that will arrive will be in a year, a year and a half.

"The Italian defence industry,' Crosetto stressed, 'is restarting: it will increase production by 40 per cent this year and 100 per cent next year. But the first deliveries that will arrive, for example, of Samp-t defence systems, the same ones we gave to Ukraine and for which we are waiting for the new ones, will be in a year and a year and a half. These are the timescales. However, we are not vulnerable to an attack, because we have the old systems and we did not give them all (to Ukraine, ed)'.

The Head of Defence outlined a number of characteristics that, in his opinion, the Armed Forces must acquire. "We need to have, apart from career soldiers, professional and technical people that we do not normally have. Think of artificial intelligence experts: I need people who know about new technologies,' said Crosetto. 'These, normally, you either get them through contracts or you get them through the reserve, which is an instrument with which we can give grades to people who come temporarily to give us a hand in Defence'.

"There are plans, which I have requested from the Defence General Staff and which will then be discussed in Parliament, to increase the armed forces on the one hand," explained Crosetto, "because we thought we no longer needed them. So to maintain those that exist and increase some of them: we have a lot of exits, because being in the military is not easy, especially in the navy where there are young men and women who leave and spend 6-7 months at sea, perhaps in places where they cannot even call home, and then they have to come back and after two months perhaps leave again. The stress is so great that there is a very high turnover.

At the beginning of the month, Crosetto presented the eleventh arms decree to Ukraine to Copasir. The new arms decree