Territorial Organization
Another key objective which has inspired the new design of the territorial infrastructure was that of streamlining a somewhat redundant structure, by ruling out all overlapping or opposing functions and at the same time implementing the necessary economy of human and material resources. The Military Regions passed from the previous seven to the present three (Northern with HQs in Padua, Central with HQs Florence and Southern with HQs in Naples), extend their authority over the Autonomous Commands: the Southern Region over Sicily, the Cental Region over Sardinia and the Capital's Command). They carry out territorial tasks and manage military infrastructure and properties, supervise draft, recruitment and mobilization activities and perform some administrative and medical tasks (the latter to be further unified at joint level).
The Military Regions are not assigned operational tasks, close support operations included (the Army General Staff or COMFOTER may derogate from this rule only exceptionally). However, they keep under their authority the Hospitals and the Military Districts, the latter subordinated to the Draft Recruitment and Mobilization Commands. of their respective regions. The District network has long been subject to a major reorganization which, also thanks to the increasing employment of the Information Technology, has allowed the military to trim the number of agencies from the previous 65 and more to the present 24, generally placed in Region chief towns.
The Public Information Centers NIP, operate in Province chief towns. They provide all necessary information to young recruits and issue the required certificates.
As in the operational sector, where the tasks previously performed by the Military Regions were handed over to COMFOTER, also in the territorial support area new responsibilities will be subsumed under the Logistic Inspectorate. In fact, it will coordinate the management of all plants, warehouses, logistic units and agencies within the so-called "general support area". The reorganization of this sector is a slow-moving and complex process, as a wide range of political, trade-union and local problems, together with legislative provisions, must be taken into account. The above-mentioned difficulties, however, will not affect the Army's main goal of streamlining, updating and rationalizing one of its core functions.