简氏防务2012头巾年度报告.docxVIP

Jane’s Page PAGE \* Arabic \* MERGEFORMAT 1 of NUMPAGES \* Arabic \* MERGEFORMAT 1 EUROPE Date Posted:?07-Dec-2012 Janes Defence Weekly JDW 2012 Annual Defence Report: Europe Money, or the lack of it, continues to be Europes greatest concern, with defence coffers continuing to be raided to stave off Europes sovereign debt troubles. However, adversity has engendered unity, with 2012 seeing many European nations increasingly looking to co-operate on defence issues ranging from policy to procurement Nicholas de Larrinaga???London Managing declining defence budgets remained the principal theme for a Europe in 2012 still struggling under the burden of severe economic pressures. Several elements were increasingly played upon, with NATOs Smart Defence and the European Unions pooling and sharing (PS) initiatives coming to the fore as a means of trying to stem the potential haemorrhaging of European military capability that hangs over efforts to restrain defence spending. The impending drawdown from Afghanistan also took on an increasing prominence last year, with some key European nations choosing to hasten their exit from the conflict. The Wests stand-off with Russia over ballistic missile defence continued, despite European fears of being abandoned by a United States increasingly looking toward the Pacific rather than Europe. Meanwhile, the spectre of conflict on Europes borders - including in Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh - present challenges for Europe going into 2013. NATO approved the AGS programme in May. The project will deploy five RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs fitted with an MP-RTIP sensor (mock-up pictured). (IHS/Patrick Allen) 1407775 Afghanistan continues to dominate European defence issues and, with the majority of Europes nations still deployed in theatre, the forthcoming end of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in 2014 has been foremost on many leaders and defence ministers minds. Financial concerns, meanwhile, had an impact on defen