(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 7 - Italy needs more troops and a reserve force that is truly ready for action if needed, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday.
    "An operational reserve as an enrolment instrument in the event of a crisis is indispensable, and the armed forces' manning levels must be increased to ensure the full functionality," Crosetto told a hearing of the Senate's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
    He said that cuts to the armed forces made in 2012 must be reversed, arguing they were the "child of another era.
    "It is also necessary to rejuvenate the armed forces by favouring generational turnover," Crosetto added. (ANSA).