• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

NATO

• NATO Secretary General Robertson said on Thursday that Europe’s armed forces must modernize quickly to operate alongside the United States in meeting the security challenges of the future. Visiting the Czech Republic, Robertson said NATO would embark on a new, historic course at a summit in Prague in November, demanding that Europe raise its military capability. "This will not just be about possible invitations to enlarge NATO, it will be a transformation summit with NATO bringing itself up to date, modernizing and adapting for the new security challenges of the 21st century," he told a news conference. Speaking later to university students, he said much current talk about European military weakness was wrong, but it was right that more must be done for European forces "to operate alongside America’s modernized forces". "We must modernize our military and we must do it quickly," he said. It was unlikely Europe would keep pace with U.S. defense spending, Robertson said, but Europeans should concentrate spending on technologies such as laser-guided bombs, air-to-air refueling and all-weather aircraft. "Too many governments are spending too little on defense, and too many governments waste what they do save on capability so it contributes nothing to their own security or the security of Europe," he said.(Reuters 1711 210302 GMT Mar 02)

• Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Thursday he hoped talks on giving Moscow a stronger voice in the NATO military alliance -- the country’s former Cold War adversary -- would bear fruit by mid-May. "I am fairly optimistic that, despite difficult negotiations...we can reach an agreement that corresponds to our common security interests," Ivanov said. "That's why it’s called the mechanism of 20, not 19 plus Russia, but where we all have equal rights at the table, just as we did in the Contact Group on the Balkans," Ivanov said at the Russian Embassy, where he presented a German-language version of his book on Russian foreign policy. In separate remarks in Prague, NATO Secretary-General Robertson said he was also optimistic the talks would remain on track despite reports of a breakdown in negotiations. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Gusarov and a team of experts are to meet NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Guenther Altenburg in Brussels on Friday to try to advance the talks ahead of a May 14-15 meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Reykjavik, Iceland.(Reuters 1932 210302 GMT Mar 02)

ISAF

• A soldier under investigation over the deaths of five soldiers under his command in Afghanistan may have told the men to defuse two Russian-made missiles so they could be kept as souvenirs, Germany’s largest newspaper reported Thursday. The Defense Ministry refused to comment on the report in the Bild daily, which cited a confidential ministry report to parliament on the March 6 explosion that killed two German and three Danish soldiers serving in the international security force for Afghanistan. Bild said the soldier in charge is alleged to have told the five soldiers under his command that rather than getting rid of the missiles in a controlled explosion, they should defuse them so they could be brought home. The Defense Ministry confirmed that an investigative team had given a report to parliament's defense committee Tuesday. Manfred Opel, a committee member from the governing Social Democrats, told NDR radio that carelessness could not be excluded as a cause of the accident, but cautioned that the military and prosecutors were still investigating.(AP 211717 Mar 02 GMT)

EU

• EU defense ministers will discuss ways to boost their contribution to the fight against international terrorism when they open talks here Friday. Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo, who will chair the two-day meeting, wants the EU nations to have closer intelligence cooperation and greater coordination of plans to protect against nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. He also wants to improve Europe-wide monitoring of air traffic, a measure European military sources said was urgently needed to better guard against a Sept. 11-type attack in Europe. The ministers will be joined in their talks at Spain’s General Military Academy by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign and security policy representative. According to NATO figures, U.S. military spending scheduled at $305.9 billion (dollars) last year was almost double that spent by all the European NATO members even before President Bush announced a $40 billion (dollars) anti-terrorist package after Sept. 11.(AP 211801 Mar 02 GMT)

 FINAL ITEM