Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

03 February 2004

NATO

• The Bush administration’s 2005 defence budget envisions spending on new weapons reaching $114 billion in fiscal year 2009, including huge outlays for new ships, unmanned and manned aircraft and other weapons. The Pentagon’s $401.7 billion budget plan for 2005 earmarks $74.9 billion to buy new weapons, including a 13-percent increase in missile defence spending and a near doubling in funding to $3.2 billion for a high-tech program to modernize the U.S. Army. (Reuters 021747 GMT Feb 04)
  
  
• Greece on Monday raised the number of military personnel on duty during this summer’s Athens Olympics by 2,000 to 10,000 and said an additional 40,000 troops will be on call to safeguard the Games, making it the country’s biggest military deployment in peace time. Greece has also asked NATO for help during the Olympics and will use AWACS surveillance aircraft equipped with airborne radar systems to patrol the skies. (Reuters 022055 GMT Feb 04)

EU

• Protecting against terrorist threats, strengthening computer networks and securing borders will be goals for EU defence research funding over the next three years, the European Commission is set to announce on Tuesday. The Commission has said if the initial research projects are a success they could pave the way for a European Arms Agency. The Commission will also announce on Tuesday how it hopes to get its “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security” system operational by 2008. (Reuters 021831 GMT Feb 04)

WAR ON TERROR

• Asian governments will meet this week on the island of Bali to look at expanding their anti-terror fight beyond their often-sporadic, two-way agreements that have damaged - but failed to defeat – the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group. Critics say they doubt the Cabinet ministers and other senior officials from 33 countries will be able to sign anything beyond a vague declaration when they meet Wednesday and Thursday because of the region’s history of mutual suspicions, national self-interest and varying assessments of the terror threat. (AP 030141 Feb 04)