Green light from Parliament for the government’s plan to transfer the Garibaldi ship free of charge to Indonesia, the former aircraft carrier built by Fincantieri and flagship of the Italian Navy for nearly 30 years.
The case, which began last February 19 when the Chambers received a government decree draft sent by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, which provides for the free transfer of the Garibaldi ship to the Indonesian Navy, closed yesterday in the Chamber’s Defense Committee. A dossier from the Defense General Staff accompanied the proposal, explaining the reasons why Italy should transfer the ship, which was the flagship of the Italian fleet until 2011.
In 2022, it was hypothesized to use it as a museum ship in Genoa or for launching satellites from the sea, until negotiations between the Indonesian Navy and Italy for the acquisition of the decommissioned aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi.
In the end, the choice was made for the free transfer to Jakarta, an operation aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and reducing the costs of managing and dismantling the unit. The ship, commissioned in 1985 and placed in reserve in 2024, will be transferred by December 2026 as part of a broader military and industrial cooperation strategy between the two countries.
The operation is indeed linked to possible new contracts: Indonesia could purchase six DGK-class submarines produced by Drass for 480 million euros, 24 Leonardo M-346 training aircraft for about 600 million, and three patrol aircraft for 450 million euros.
The opposition protests were in vain: the PD and M5S immediately criticized the operation.
All the details.
PARLIAMENT’S GREEN LIGHT
After the favorable opinion of the Senate committees, on April 28 the joint Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees of the Chamber also approved the ministry decree providing for the free transfer of the naval unit to the Indonesian Navy.
THE VALUE OF THE OPERATION
Jakarta will thus receive the Garibaldi ship free of charge, the Italian aircraft carrier that served in the Italian Navy from 1985 until its retirement in October 2024, with the commissioning of Trieste, the amphibious assault ship or LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) delivered by Fincantieri to the Navy last December 7.
According to the Defense General Staff dossier, “the free transfer of the naval unit to the counterpart, with an estimated total value of about €54,022,426.67, does not entail additional costs to the State budget, as it does not create new spending commitments for the Defense Administration.”
THE REASONS
The report states that the transfer allows avoiding significant maintenance costs for the Garibaldi ship – with its 180 meters length and 30 meters width at the deck – currently borne by the Navy, which for the year 2025 are estimated at about 5 million euros, related to electricity consumption, surveillance services, security, and minimal activities necessary to ensure the habitability and integrity of the platform.
Not only that. The report highlights that if the naval unit were not transferred, the Navy would have to initiate the disposal procedure aimed at subsequent demolition. This process would have an estimated duration of no less than 24 months and would involve total costs estimated at about 18.7 million euros.
“Additional costs could be added to the Administration if the demolition were to occur at a cost, in the event – already occurred, according to the report, in previous experiences – that no economic operator submits valid offers for the acquisition of the hull destined for demolition,” the document specifies.
Therefore, in light of all this, the free transfer of the naval unit represents the economically most sustainable option and, overall, the most advantageous compared to alternative hypotheses of reserve maintenance or disposal, as it allows eliminating certain and significant costs and containing the Administration’s exposure to further potential future charges, according to Defense.
ROME’S STRATEGY IN COOPERATION WITH JAKARTA
Furthermore, the initiative is part of a broader strategy by the Meloni government to strengthen cooperation with Indonesia. According to the government, the transfer “aims to strengthen collaboration and cooperation between the Italian Armed Forces and the Indonesian Armed Forces” and to promote interoperability between the two countries. In this regard, the report notes how the recent sale to Indonesia of two PPA-class naval units built by Fincantieri, for a total value of about 1.25 billion dollars, “has initiated a channel of industrial cooperation of particular importance.”
The operation is therefore also linked to possible industrial contracts, including the sale of submarines, training aircraft, and patrol planes for a total value of about 1.5 billion euros.
POLITICAL CLASH WITH OPPOSITIONS AGAINST THE OPERATION
With parliamentary approval, the free transfer operation of the Garibaldi aircraft carrier – at the center of a clash between the majority and the opposition – has thus reached its final phase and should be completed by December 2026.
Members of the Chamber Defense Committee from the Democratic Party and Five Star Movement voted against the measure, complaining about a lack of information.
“We voted against in the joint committees,” Foreign Affairs and Defense of Montecitorio, “regarding the transfer of the Garibaldi ship to Indonesia. The documents provided by the majority are completely insufficient for us. We ask that technical documents be given to us, also to understand whether there are intermediaries between Italy and Indonesia. We are facing a still opaque matter for which we ask the government to shed full light,” declared, in a joint statement, the Democratic Party group leaders of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees of the Chamber, Enzo Amendola and Stefano Graziano.
Also, “The Five Star Movement voted against, after the rejection of our request to hear Crosetto and Drass president Cappelletti and after the requested documentary clarifications materialized in the viewing of documents of little relevance as they predate the Indonesian government letters,” reads a statement from M5S deputies in the Chamber Defense Committee: Arnaldo Lomuti, Marco Pellegrini, and Mario Perantoni. “All the doubts we had originally remain on this matter about why Jakarta proposed Drass as intermediary, what link there is between this and the Indonesian submarine contract, and possible public-private conflicts of interest between Defense and Drass in light of the close relations between Crosetto and Cappelletti,” concluded the Five Star parliamentarians’ statement.
