EU defense ministers may endorse pooling resources (AP)

BRUSSELS ? EU defense ministers are considering whether to pool and share military resources as austerity measures due to the European debt crisis bite into national defense budgets, officials said Wednesday.

Another cost-saving measure that ministers will consider at their meeting Wednesday is cutting the EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia from 1,400 members to 600, officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with customary policy.

The 27-nation bloc collectively has the second-largest defense budget in the world, amounting to nearly euro200 billion ($265 billion). But military spending has already shrunk 15 percent in the past decade and is set to plunge further in the next several years.

Making matters worse for European armies, the fragmentation of national military commands and defense industries has made it almost impossible to achieve economies of scale in the procurement of military equipment.

In the past decade, troops from EU nations have operated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa but they have relied mainly on the U.S. for logistical, intelligence and other support.

Officials who briefed journalists said areas where savings could be quickly realized include standardizing air-to-air refueling fleets, creating joint medical field hospitals, setting up a common a pilot training program, and jointly procuring items like smart munitions from European manufacturers.

Although the EU nations have about 1.6 million men and women under arms, they have been hard-pressed to generate troops and military equipment for overseas missions.

Officials have pointed to the newly launched European Air Transport Command, saying it could serve as an example of how greater integration in strategic transport can result in savings on maintenance and the training of air crews.

The multinational command, based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, coordinates the air activities of a number of air forces with over 200 transport aircraft. The new Airbus A400M strategic freighter is due to become the backbone of the combined European fleet, with nearly 200 scheduled to enter service in eight EU air forces.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_defense_ministers

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