US spending cuts put Nato ‘at risk’

In Brussels yesterday for his first meeting with Nato defence ministers, Mr Panetta pointed to this year’s war in Libya as an example of Nato’s vital role in responding to global military crises.

The 28-member alliance is close to concluding an air-and-sea campaign in Libya that saw Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrown without a Nato casualty.

European members and Canada provided most of the strike aircraft used in the Libya campaign.

But the war exposed shortcomings in their capabilities in strategic transport, aerial surveillance, air refuelling, and unmanned drones, most of which had to be supplied by the United States. Nato also remains bogged down in a hugely expensive war in Afghanistan, where ten years of fighting has failed to subdue a Taleban insurgency, and officials say the extra effort in Libya has exposed limits that must be addressed.

“After World War One, after World War Two, after Korea, after Vietnam, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, we made the mistake of hollowing out our forces. That cannot happen again,” Mr Panetta said in a speech before meeting his Nato counterparts.

“We need to use this moment to make the case for the need to invest in this alliance to ensure it remains relevant to the security challenges of the future.”

Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Nato ministers to identify ahead of an alliance summit in Chicago in May projects in which they could co-operate to make best use of resources at a time of economic austerity.

“To remain indispensable, we need to respond quickly and effectively to new challenges. And we need have access to the full range of capabilities,” he told ministers.

Mr Rasmussen said Libya had shown shortcomings among non-US allies in areas such as unmanned surveillance drones, intelligence gathering and air-to-air refuelling.

“It is vital that the capacity of this type are available more broadly within our alliance. And in times of austerity, it is necessary that we get a better return for the money we spend on defence,” he said.

German defence minister Thomas de Maiziere said Nato had to deal with the fact it was facing new security challenges at a time when defence budgets were stagnant or shrinking. Germany did not participate in the Libya campaign.

“It won’t be possible for us to compensate for what the Americans can no longer afford for our security,” he said. “We have to concentrate on what is really necessary.

“The challenge, as difficult as it may sound, is to become smaller but more effective. It’s also about a new form of burden sharing, but not by pushing forward and backward between the US and Europe, but by joint projects.”

The US, which spends far more on defence than all its Nato allies combined, faces the prospect of having to cut its spending by as much as $1 trillion over ten years.

So far, US president Barack Obama and Congress have approved $350 billion (£226bn) in cuts to national security spending. If a Congressional “super committee” fails to reach a deficit deal by the year-end, automatic across-the-board cuts could take another $600bn (£389bn) from that budget.

This has raised questions about some expensive existing co-operative projects, such as a US-led missile defence initiative based in Europe. Some in the US Congress want more cuts in the 79,000 US military personnel in Europe.

Mr Panetta said the cuts could be “devastating to our national security and to yours as well”.