The 2018 budget request for the European Reassurance Initiative has grown to $4.7 Billion.
The European Reassurance Initiative is a programme initiated in 2014 by the White House to increase US presence in Europe for security purposes. Originally planned for one year, the initiative has increased in appropriation from a $1 billion operation to $4.7 billion by 2018.
US Air Force Major Gen. David W. Allvin held a telephone briefing with reporters, speaking from Eucom headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.
“This is one of our nation’s commitments to Europe, and it demonstrates our strong dedication to the trans-Atlantic bond and the defence of our allies.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the United States authorised ERI at $985 million in 2015, $789 million in 2016 and $3.4 billion in 2017.
Operation Atlantic Resolve, funded partly by ERI, is designed to demonstrate to NATO allies and the world the ‘US is intent to fulfil NATO treaty commitments to respond to threats against allies’.
According to a press release, Allvin said ERI’s main focus areas include:
- Increased presence. “We’re proposing a more robust U.S. military rotational presence throughout the theater that is capable of deterring and, if required, responding to any regional threats,” he said. The ERI 2018 budget funds this at $1.7 billion, according to the budget document.
- Exercises and training. Eucom is increasing the training tempo to improve overall readiness and interoperability with U.S. allies and partners, the general said. This is funded at $218 million.
- Enhanced pre-positioning. “This is a strategic placement of equipment throughout the theater that supports our steady-state activities while also enabling us to rapidly deploy forces into theater if required,” he added. This is funded at $2.2 billion.
- Improving infrastructure. This is funded at $338 million.
- Building partnership capacity. The general said this strengthens the ability of allies and partners to defend themselves and enables their full participation with U.S. operational forces. This is funded at $267 million.
The fiscal 2018 ERI budget request also includes $150 million to continue train, equip and advise efforts to build Ukraine’s capacity to conduct internal defence operations to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and support institutional transformation efforts, according to the fiscal 2018 budget document.
Got to feel sorry for the US- all of Europe (including the UK) sit on their bottoms and do nothing to increase defence capabilities or move towards meeting the NATO target of 2% GDP to defence expenditure. I think with the BREXIT decision the UK needs to massively up it’s game. There are just 2 capable EU nations currently with a range of capabilities France and the UK (although the UK is only just hanging onto some of its capabilities by the skin of it’s teeth and might actually soon lose them- early decommission of HMS ocean and no helicopter… Read more »
LOL, you are like Jeremy Corbyn’s harder, militarized brother. Spend, spend, spend.
Nice shopping list Mr. JB-maybe cutting the Aid Budget in half could fund it!
My list would be far more modest and hopefully more achievable-2 more Type 31’s, definitely the Norwegian anti ship missile, 1 more Astute and an upgrade to the new OPV’s weaponary.Oh yes-and fixing the Type 45’s engines a priority
Yes. Mr B’s list is a good one if one ignores cost issues but with the NHS collapsing, social care collapsing, and police stations closing and police numbers dropping I just don’t see that amount of extra budget ever being made available so I would also be looking at a much more modest list such as yours. I like yours Geoff because you nail exactly the critical things to give biggest impact. One question and possible area of disagreement. You mention an “upgrade to the new OPV’s weaponary”. What are you thinking of? River B2 will never be up to… Read more »
the EU could not careless as they are going forward with the EU army,the same one we tried to veto..it will only be time before they will start to pull out of NATO,making it more or less obsolete as they won,t fund 2 commitments…especially once we have finally left because they won,t have much money going into the EU pot..
While the US increases their funding for European defence, the MSM tell us constantly that Trump is undermining European defence?
Part and parcel to the anti-Trump narrative. If the media actually told the truth about what’s really going on, and not pushing fake news, things would be clearer to people.
As far as I can tell, despite the media desperately trying to find something to hurl at Trump that will actually stick, Trump has not yet put a foot wrong.
the liberal elite just do not like a straight talking person telling them some home truths. As for the EU, unfortunately they are a hopeless bunch of corrupt individuals.