European Mandate: Cut Spending, But Carefully

Jan 25, 2011 AviationWeek.com

By Andy Nativi, Christina Mackenzie

Genoa, Paris

Defense budgets will decrease in 2011 in many European countries with few exceptions: Poland is increasing its budget, while Italy, France and Turkey are keeping spending essentially stable. Countries facing the most pressure to reduce national deficits—the U.K., Spain, Greece and Portugal—are being forced to take exceptional measures, but this is not going to have a great effect on capital investments such as the force modernization or R&D. Where cuts are necessary they are being applied gradually and are often not as dramatic as feared. For example, in the U.K. last summer, a 20% budget cut was envisioned, but the actual figure is 8%.