Entries for the 'Budgets' Category

U.S. aerospace and defence companies’ financial performances in 2011 reflect the ongoing Department of Defense budget cuts. According to Deloitte’s recent report "2011 Top 20 U.S. Aerospace and Defense Company Financial Performance Analysis", the general performance of the aerospace and defence industry is to remain sluggish in the near future.

India faces embarrassment prior to a summit of BRIC countries due to a leaked letter stating India’s defence capabilities are outdated despite budget increases.

The UK government might make a U-turn on the ongoing procurement project of the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, which includes the equipment of aircraft carriers with appropriate catapults.

The German-French aircraft maker and defence contractor EADS is object of a strategy debate.

According to the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, Japan is going to ease its decades-old ban on weapons exports to boost its defence economy.

China yesterday announced an increase of its defence spending this year by 11.2 per cent, triggering international concerns about the country’s military intentions.

In the scope of a meeting with German Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta outlined the details of upcoming US troop changes in Europe.

The delays to US defence procurement projects intended to save money within overall spending cuts commitments could raise costs in the long-run, defence experts in Washington D.C. highlighted.

Two weeks before the presidential elections in Russia, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin announced an increase in defence spending.

India and Saudi Arabia have decided to set up a joint committee on defence cooperation, as announced on the sidelines of the visit of a high-level delegation of Indian defence policy-makers, led by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, to Riyadh on Tuesday.

In the scope of its Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system, NATO will purchase five US-built Global Hawk drones from Northrop Grumman.

Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola announced today to a joint defence committee of both houses of Parliament that Italy will reduce its order of F-35 by one-third as part of defence spending cuts.

According to a report by the defence select committee of the British Parliament, the UK would struggle to conduct an operation of the dimension of the Libya campaign after the full implementation of the strategic defence and security review.

Pentagon officials announced yesterday that the U.S. defense budget for 2013 will cut military spending by five percent to $525 million, marking the first decrease in the Pentagon’s base budget since Sept. 11.

According to the latest annual report from J. Michael Gilmore, Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, the DoD abilities are "not sufficient to prevent an advanced adversary from adversely affecting the missions that were being exercised."

EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois has urged the British and French governments to open up plans for a proposed MALE Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) to include EADS and other European partners.

The US Navy's shipbuilding programme has been given budget priority and will not be cut to meet the Pentagon’s $263 billion reduction in defence spending by 2013.

Chinese state media have scrutinised Washington’s new Asia-intensive defence policy since its release last Thursday, although Beijing is yet to give an official reaction.”

British Defence Minister Philip Hammond voiced concern at Capitol Hill on January 5th, at the potential effects of the new US military strategy and budget plan proposing $487 billion in cuts over the next decade.

Only 10 EU member states have so far implemented the EU’s defence procurement directive, as confirmed by the European Commission Directorate General for Internal Market and Services (DG MARKT) yesterday.

According to a leaked document published by The Guardian, the UK Defence Ministry will undertake major job cuts of its senior staff.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution concerning a stronger harmonisation of European defence policies last week.

The SDA yesterday hosted Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, for a lunch with SDA members to discuss NATO’s priorities for 2012 and objectives for the Chicago summit as well as the SDA’s programme for its 10th anniversary.

The UK is to seek new military alliances and will no longer invest in large-scale military missions, declares Chief of Staff Gen. Sir David Richards in his annual “state of the union” address on December 14th.

The 2012 US defense authorisation bill contains provisions for stricter cost controls for the purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

New UK Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond announced yesterday that the agreed increase in spending for military equipment as of 2015 will not be affected by further budget cuts.

The White House has announced that it will close possible loopholes for the Pentagon to shift different parts of its budget and circumvent cuts to its base budget as of 2013.

The Netherlands are aiming to strengthen cooperation with other European countries and play a pioneering role in multinational defence projects.

European defence ministers agreed on a range of projects for pooling defence capabilities at their Brussels meeting on November 30th.

An amendment to the 2012 defence authorisation bill, approved by the Senate on November 30th, allows for an exchange of different types of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft between the US and the UK.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Gen. Martin Dempsey, new US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of the consequences of the foreseen spending cuts ($450bn over the next 10 years) on US Army operability.

Switzerland awarded the contract for the replacement of its fleet of Northrop Gruman F-5 fighter aircraft to Swedish defence group Saab, ordering 22 Gripen fighters.

According to Stéphane Beemelmans, Secretary of State in the German Ministry of Defence, Germany and France should cooperate on unmanned armed vehicles (UAV) projects.

The Franco-British summit will be dedicated to different aspects of the countries’ defence cooperation at the end of this week.

The Austrian army will considerably reduce the number of its armed vehicles by the end of 2013, as announced by Defence Minister Norbert Darabos yesterday.

The announced failure of the so-called US congressional supercommittee will generate a new debate on US defence spending cuts.

President Barack Obama announced on today during a speech to the Australian Parliament that budget cuts would not thwart plans for a broader US military role in Asia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting last week in Severodvinsk on state defence-industry contracts and safterward told reporters: "We will be fully re-equipping our Army and Navy."

The German government is scheduled to buy a 7.5% stake of the EADS in 2012 in order to allow carmaker Daimler to make 15% cuts in the airbus. The deal worth €1.2 bn is a step closer to Daimler’s goal of selling out EADS to focus on the car industry.

China’s conference, "PLA in the Next Decade," held on Monday revealed plans to modernise and change the top leadership reshaping the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in 2012.  

The Swedish parliamentary opposition Social Democrats (SDP) heavily criticised the administration of Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeld for its cuts in defence spending, and announced the drafting of their own defence strategy.

Defence contractor Lockheed Martin UK will be awarded the contract for a ₤1bn (1.15bn Euro) upgrade of the British army’s Warrior armoured vehicle, as announced by Prime Minister David Cameron and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond.

Despite recent defence budget cuts, the aerospace company Boeing is expecting high growth in the sector of cyber-security, and opened its new ‘Cyber Engagement Centre’ yesterday.

The German government is planning to reduce its fighter jet and helicopter orders from the European aerospace company EADS.

A news analysis by the Financial Times revealed today that recent job cuts in Western defence companies such as BAE Systems are not primarily due to budget cuts in defence spending, but rather due to be defence hardware being increasingly built in the country of the client government.

Worldwide arms sales decreased in 2010 due to national governments’ struggle with the economic crisis.

Japan may choose a European defence fighter for its renewal of the country’s fighter aircraft fleet.

Facing up to $1 trillion defence cuts over ten years if Congress fails to pass a budgetary plan, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged Congress to find other ways to lower the US debt.

On June 29 the Security & Defence Agenda organised an international conference entitled “Shaping NATO’s reform agenda” with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, NATO, Lockheed Martin, IBM, the Atlantic Council and the Euro-Atlantic association of Belgium.

The former UK security adviser Admiral Lord West has warned of shrinking British influence in global affairs due to cuts in the national defence budget.

France is preparing a review of its defence strategy for 2012, as explained by Francis Delon, Secretary General for National Defence and Security, on September 6th.

Ranking members of India’s armed forces have lamented the condition of the country’s military hardware and warned against a widening gap between India’s and China’s defence capabilities.

US arms makers are trying to compensate possible losses due to the Pentagon’s considerable budget cuts by stepping up their exports, especially to East Asia.

After failing to find buyers for a Daimler-held 7.5 per cent share of the European aerospace company EADS, the German government is now preparing to take over this stake.

An Op-Ed by Shada Islam

It’s no surprise: China’s rise has meant intensified scrutiny of its military budget. Alarm bells have gone off in Asia, America and, to a lesser extent, in Europe at Beijing’s decision to raise the national defence budget by almost 13 per cent.

The reshaping of the British armed forces will start on September 1st with a series of meetings at military bases in the UK and elsewhere. Army commanders will convoke those who have been selected for the first round of cuts which will continue for 9 years.

General David Petraeus, father of the counterinsurgency strategy and in Iraq and Afghanistan, yesterday retired from the Army to become the director of the CIA. Admiral Mike Mullen, hosting the ceremony said Petraeus had set the “gold standard for command in wartime”.

Commander of the US Marine Corps Gen. Jim Amos announced a deep restructuring of the force, contributing to the country’s ongoing defence cuts.

An independent study claims that over $30bn have been wasted on contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq due to the Pentagon’s bad management and a lack of competition. In a final report the Commission on Wartime Contracting alerted the US Congress that “waste and fraud have undermined American diplomacy, fomented corruption in host countries and tarnished the US image abroad.”

A report written by Howard Mathers, the chairman of the British MoD’s defence nuclear environment and safety board has been released, unveiling the MoD’s struggle to maintain the safety of the UK’s nuclear bombs and submarines due to defence cuts.

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has denied Finland’s intentions to join NATO due to expected defence cuts.

During a visit to the Royal Air Force Chinook base at Odiham, British Secretary of Defence Liam Fox announced a £1bn deal with Boeing for the delivery of 14 Chinook transport helicopters including development and support for 5 years.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee released a report warning that British forces in Afghanistan and Libya will likely face shortages of vital equipment within a month due to a supply chain at “critical risk of failure”.

Stefan Wallin, Finland’s newly appointed Defence Minister, announced that further defence cuts justify Finland joining NATO. However, Wallin's position has been rejected by military chiefs, who argue that Finland would require a larger defence budget to conform to NATO’s operational and equipment standards.

Due to substantial US defence spending cuts, leading defence contractors and investors have revised down their market outlook. During a conference in New York, Jim Albaugh, Chief Executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, backed up by Charles Mathis, Chief Financial Officer of Force Protection, told investors that “the Department of Defense is going to have to take out between $800bn and $1,000bn over the next 10 years

According to a report released on August 10 from Moody’s Investor Service, a credit rating agency which performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities, the US debt ceiling act signed beginning of August puts significant pressure on defence companies.

On August 4, US Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta shared his concerns on “the sequestration mechanism in the nation’s new debt-reduction law, given the multitude of threats facing America”.

A panel of senior sector executives has come up with 53 proposals on how to improve the functioning of the UK Ministry of Defence. Defence Secretary Liam Fox said he agrees with most of the proposed changes, calling them “transformative”.

Following his warning to NATO members on finances in his SDA speech on 10 June, US Secretary of Defence Gates reiterated his critique on Wednesday to members of the US Senate Appropriation Committee, adding that this could eventually force the United States to move away from the alliance.

A recent UK Ministry of Defence publication warns that austerity measures could jeopardize the safety of its military installations. The Defence Environment and Safety Board has concluded that "the need to reduce costs and the severe reduction in personnel numbers will undoubtedly place a severe strain on safety systems".

The British Ministry of Defence is to double the redundancies of civilian staff this year to 8,000. Unions claimed they had received assurances that the number of staff taking advantage of "early release schemes" would not be increased from the planned 4,000.

UK Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey told the Guardian that the capability to conduct cyber-attacks is "an integral part of the country's armoury" and that "action in cyberspace will form part of the future battlefield".

Shortly before the start of the G8 summit in Deauville, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have reached agreement on a major arms deal between the two countries.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. With a clear majority of 322 in favour to 96 against, congressmen and women gave their blessing to a $ 690bn defence budget for next year.

In a row over the financing of different jet fighter engine programmes, the White House has threatened to veto the 2012 defence authorisation bill.

Speaking last week during a visit in Beijing, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced closer military cooperation between China and Pakistan. Islamabad offered a deal to China to build a naval base at the south western city of Gwadar and to maintain a regular military presence there.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said US strategy changes are likely to reduce defence procurement in the next decade.

German defence minister Thomas de Maizière presented the first concrete details of his plan to restructure the German armed forces.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired a number of domestic weapons plants chiefs, as well as several defence ministry officials on 17 May, due to an industry failure to meet the Kremlin’s deadline in delivering new weapon systems.

European aerospace and defence group EADS announced a net loss of € 12m in the first quarter of 2011. The slight loss, due to foreign exchange factors, stands in sharp contrast to last year’s profit of more than € 100m.

The Chairman of the US Congress’ House Armed Services Committee has warned the Obama administration to no repeat past mistakes when finalising the 2012 defence budget.

Debate between US democrats and republicans about the Pentagon’s budget erupted this week, as both parties outlined their strategies to ensure the global US power.

The US military has submitted lists of unfunded programmes essential to their requirements in 2012 to Congress. According to US authorities, the Navy has asked for an additional € 460m ($ 684m) for aviation equipment and ship depot maintenance.

The UK Ministry of Defence has announced the first redundancies large scale defence cuts. Some 1000 soldiers and 1600 sailors will lose their jobs.

India fired two missiles off its eastern coast on Friday, March 11. The two missiles, Dhanush and Prithvi II, were domestically manufactured. The Prithvi II has 250 km range and can carry nuclear warheads. The Dhanush is a naval variant of the Prithvi missile and it can fire 250 km range missiles. The tests aimed at training the Indian armed forces and develop the country’s nuclear weapons.

Former Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière will replace Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg as German Defence Minister. Mr. Guttenberg stepped down on March 1st after plagiarism scandal concerning his doctoral thesis. Thomas de Maizière inherits a ministry that has recently ended conscription and has embarked on a massive reform- scheme due to broad budget cuts.

A group of former British Chiefs of the Defence Staff, in a letter to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, have called the cancellation of the Nimrod MRA4 surveillance aircraft programme “perverse”, amidst claims it will endanger Britain’s nuclear deterrent. The project, which has already cost the UK €4.6 billion, was cancelled as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), both to save costs and open up competition for a potential un-manned capability.

The German government has ratified their portion of the A400M budget, confirming the order of 53 of the military transport aircraft at an estimated cost of €3.5 billion. However, financial constraints and a radical decrease in troop numbers after the recent military reform package has lowered demand, meaning that up to 13 of the aircraft may be sold on to third party buyers.

US aviation giant and key defence prime Boeing have announced 1,100 lay-offs, primarily from its C-17 military cargo plane programme. The news comes after the budget cuts announced by the Pentagon earlier this month, which has reduced the demand for the military logistics aircraft. In related news, US avionics firm General Electronics have announced a joint aviation project with Aviation Industry Corp of China (Avic), despite the ongoing French scandal about industrial espionage in the Chinese sector.

General Vincenzo Camporini has ended his tenure as the Italian Chief of Defence Staff, after three years of service. His replacement, General Biagio Abrate, will assume the role, having previously held positions as Head of the Defence Minister’s cabinet, Secretary General for Defence and Director General for Armaments. General Abrate has vowed to continue the force modernization initiatives of his predecessor.

Europe’s flagship space programme and answer to the US dominated Global Positioning System (GPS) network, the Galileo project, has run into difficulties, with the announcement that it will need an additional €1.9 billion. The money, which will be used to raise the total number of satellites to 30, brings the bill to €5 billion. The news comes just days after the German satellite CEO Berry Smutny was fired, after Wikileaks reported he had called the project “doomed to failure”.

French Defence Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire has confirmed that British and French defence ministers Liam Fox and Alain Juppé met on the 13th of January, to assess the progress of cooperative measures agreed between the two nations in November. The meeting was the first ministerial level collaboration since the treaty was signed, and centred on the practical operational questions that underpin the agreement, which includes a combined rapid reaction task force and the sharing of carrier resources.

As budget cuts begin to bite in Washington, Europe may feel the effects of the financial crisis on the transatlantic relationship in unexpected ways, warns European Voice analyst, Bruce Stokes. Pointing to the flurry of consolidation plans published in the US by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform earlier this week, Stokes anticpates severe implications for Europe, in both it's military and economic relations with the US.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has announced a $78bn (£50.3bn) military budget cut for 2011, designed to end what he describes as a "culture of endless money where cost was rarely a consideration" in the Pentagon. The move comes just 6 months after the US announced $100bn in savings for the coming 5 years, making the Pantagon's current policy of fiscal retrenchment the harshest since the end of the Cold War.

Speaking to NewEurope, SDA Co-President and long serving European diplomat Javier Solana has outlined his perspective of the recent Anglo-French treaty, and the opportunities it may create for a further drive towards pan-European defence cooperation in the wake of the financial crisis. Describing the agreement, that formalises the shared use of carrier and nuclear resources, Solana described how such treaties constitute “a step along the arduous but necessary path toward greater European security”.

The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Poland have taken the un-usual step of sending a trilateral letter to Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, urging her to strengthen the EU’s military capabilities. In the letter, dated the 6th of December, the Troika calls for Ashton to personally oversee a re-focus on Europe’s military ambitions, "with you, Madam High Representative, in the lead."

The EDA’s annual report on defence expenditure, providing figures for the fiscal year 2009, has revealed a declining level of spending by all European states on defence. The figures, which include statistics from across the European Union (except Denmark) have indicated an average fall in defence investment from 1.78% of GDP in 2006 to 1.67% in 2009. These figures do not include the extensive emergency cuts announced by some of Europe’s largest military investors in 2010, such as Germany and the UK, meaning that the worst may be yet to come.

Germany has formally announced an end to conscription into the Bundeswehr (German Army), as part of ongoing measures to increase power projection capabilities abroad whilst slashing budgets at home.

NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has outlined his expectations for the forthcoming summit in Lisbon following meetings of Foreign and Defence Ministers. Claiming that all parties now have a clear mandate for reform as well as a clear idea of what reform will look like, he predicted that the summit will bring about “a substantially leaner Alliance Command Structure”, which is likely to mean streamlining the command to below 9000 personnel and reducing the number of NATO agencies from fourteen to only three.

Britain’s first Strategic Defence Review in over a decade, designed to dictate the form and function of the UK armed forces, has been over-shadowed by the need to deal with the constraints of the current financial situation and controversy over capability gaps in the new aircraft carrier program.

A panel of high-ranking UK officials discuss the upcoming Strategic Defence and Security Review. Against a backdrop of the financial crisis, panellists and participants discussed what to expect from this exercise after 9/11, two wars, and an ever changing European defence project.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen headed a high-level panel discussed the future of the Alliance, the implications of the financial crisis on the defence sector and the way ahead in Afghanistan.
"NATO's European Dimension" was organised with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and was attended by 500 particpants. .

During this innovative online experiment, leading think-tanks got together with the SDA to organise a 5-day brainstorm that was supported by NATO and the EU. The recommendations that emerged from this brainstorming event have been sent around the world.

In December 2009 the Security & Defence Agenda organised an international conference “NATO, the credit crunch and the new security environment” with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin and NATO. The discussions focused on the challenges facing NATO with the current economic crisis and the ever-changing global security paradigm. The SDA is pleased to present the principal conclusions of the conference in this report.

In November 2009, high-level representatives from EU institutions, member state governments, NGOs, think-tanks, industry, and the media, gathered to discuss how the combination of civilian and military power is the key to the European Union’s “smart power”. The Security & Defence Agenda and the CEIS (European Strategic Intelligence Company) are pleased to present the main findings of the conference.

Co-organised with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), this evening event examined Nick Witney's recent report entitled 'Re-energising European Security and Defence Policy.' Describing his report as a rather unflattering account of the first 10 years of ESDP, Nick Witney explained that his criticism was directed mainly at the member states for failing to reform their militaries, rather than those in Brussels. The discussion also focused on transatlantic cooperation, effective spending strategies, and defence industry priorities.

The Security & Defence Agenda (SDA), the European Company for Strategic Intelligence (CEIS) and the Robert Schuman Foundation are proud to present this Security & Defence Days 2008 conference report “The Outlook for European Security”. It reflects the contributions of the 27 speakers and 280 participants at this two-day conference on EU security policy issues held on November 3 & 4 November 2008.

Some 120 experts gathered in Brussels to discuss the chief ESDP weaknesses to be tackled and debate what the impact will be of France's return to NATO. Though the debate almost got sidetracked by discussions of the skirmishes in Georgia, participants discussed whether the French Presidency's agenda was too ambitious, and many voices agreed that the Presidency's call for informal high-level meetings between NATO and EU leaders was a way forward.

The event focused on current developments in the field of security and defence technology including transatlantic interoperability, funding and civ-mil cooperation.

On 14 April, the Security & Defence Agenda together with the Atlantic Council of the United States organised a transatlantic roundtable on the question of EU-US defence cooperation. With two panels and 14 high-level speakers both in Brussels and in Washington, the debate proved to be highly fruitful and a start for more transatlantic dialogue on this subject.

The Security & Defence Agenda is pleased to present you the report of its 2008 International Conference "NATO in the Next Decade - The Outlook for European Security and Defence". The event was co-organised with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin and NATO.

This Discussion Paper in two parts brings together the views of high level experts from both sides of the Atlantic on NATO and ESDP relations. Contributors include David Leakey, Daniel Korski, Ambassador Stewart Eldon, and Alyson Bailes.

Romania will be hosting the next NATO Summit in Bucharest on 2-4 April this year. On 12 March the Security & Defence Agenda hosted Romania’s Ambassador to NATO Sorin Dumitru Ducaru, US Ambassador to NATO Victoria Nuland and Belgium’s Ambassador to NATO Baron Frans van Daele.

The European Union should move toward forming a common army, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview published on Friday.

Speaking at the latest SDA Dinner, EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen placed cooperation at the top of his priority list. All of the major players had to work together if Europe was to develop a defence and security culture, and thereby guarantee the protection of the EU’s borders and critical infrastructure. At the same event, Dr. Thomas Diehl, CEO of the Diehl Stiftung, said industry was ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century. To do this, however, he wanted a level-playing field for the EU’s defence and security companies, internally and externally. Regarding the internal level playing field, intra-EU export regulations and offsets were addressed.

The event launched the debate on the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB). Speakers discussed why the EDTIB is needed for ESDP to be effective, what industrial capacities will be needed in the future, the particular characteristics of the defence sector, and the importance of security of supply and industrial sustainability.

On June 13, 2006, European Defence Agency Chief Executive Nick Witney and Security & Defence Agenda Director Giles Merritt co-chaired an expert level seminar focussing on the nature and the drivers shaping the future military environment. The meeting came at a time as the EDA is undertaking detailed analysis, using a range of conceptual approaches, aimed at developing an initial long-term vision for European capability and capacity needs. Experts examined questions arising from consideration of European internal and global security in the coming decades. Major factors influencing future capability needs identified include continued EU geographical proximity to sources of instability, new military and technological challenges, greater EU Member State cooperation, global economic, demographic and political change, civil-military co-operation and a further shift towards crisis prevention and management.

At its latest roundtable, the New Defence Agenda discussed how defence costs could be shared across the EU. However, as the day progressed, there was a gradual change of topic with the focus moving firmly to security. Moderator Michel Berendt opened the morning session by noting that it was difficult to separate defence and security and later, Thales’ Martin Hill observed that industry was mainly talking security, as it was “chasing the money”. Several speakers emphasised the gap in expenditure between Europe and the US and there was universal acceptance that defence budgets were being squeezed.