National security and the country’s decision-making freedom also depend on the resilience of the public defense manufacturing base. This is the stance expressed by Professor Fiammetta Salmoni, Director General of the Defense Industries Agency (Agenzia Industrie Difesa), speaking at the Marisa Bellisario Foundation's International Seminar, "Women, Economy, and Power," dedicated to the transformation of conflict and the management of the geopolitics of uncertainty.

According to Salmoni, traditional armed conflict has lost neither its relevance nor its gravity, but it now unfolds alongside forms of competition capable of influencing public debate and opinion-shaping processes. "Conventional warfare maintains its dramatic tangibility, but cognitive warfare now aims to saturate the public space to alter how judgment is formed," she stated.

Hence the need not to outsource response capabilities. "Strategic autonomy requires resources and expertise. The public defense industry generates value and security for the country; maintaining and strengthening domestic production capacity is the only way to ensure political decision-makers retain the freedom to choose, reducing external vulnerabilities through cooperation," declared the Director General of the Defense Industries Agency.