Why Italy and Japan Are Preparing for the Same War

Evolving Strategic Partnership

• 🤝 Italy and Japan are quietly building a consequential defense partnership, increasingly viewing Europe and the Indo-Pacific as a single strategic arena.
• 💡 Both nations believe that threats facing democratic Europe and Asia are inseparable, fundamentally reshaping their force building, partner choices, and future war planning.
• 🚀 This relationship was formally elevated to a strategic partnership in January 2023, with an action plan extending to 2027 that covers defense policy, technology, economic security, and critical supply chains.

Operational Integration

• ⚓ Italy demonstrated operational cooperation at scale by deploying its Cavalo carrier strike group to Japan for bilateral exercises during a wider Indo-Pacific tour in August 2024.
• ✅ An acquisition and cross-servicing agreement was signed, enabling the sharing of fuel, ammunition, spare parts, and logistic support during combined operations to reduce friction.
• ✈️ Japanese military pilots are receiving advanced operational training in Italy at the International Flight Training School, reflecting assumptions about shared standards, doctrine, and future combined operations.
• 🌍 Japanese ground self-defense force troops conducted airborne training in Italy during NATO's Mangusta 25 exercise, marking their first training on the European mainland.

Industrial Alignment and Shared Threats

• 🛠️ Italy and Japan are fusing their advanced defense industrial bases, with Italy excelling in combat aircraft and naval platforms, and Japan in sensors, propulsion, and material science.
• ✈️ The Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), a joint initiative with the UK, is developing a 6th-generation fighter designed for shared threats across both European and Pacific theaters.
• 🌊 Both nations are maritime democracies whose economic survival critically depends on open sea lanes, making them vulnerable to disruptions from coordinated activities by Russia and China.
• 🌐 They are also actively seeking to diversify defense and defense industrial partnerships to reduce reliance on a potentially unpredictable United States.