The White House has requested 6,5 billion dollars to contain Russia

Администрация президента Дональда Трампа запросила на следующий финансовый год, который начинается в октябре, 6,5 миллиарда долларов на меры по сдерживанию российской агрессии в Европе и укреплению обороны континента, пишет «Voice of America«.

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This is 1,7 billion more than this year.

From the White House’s published budget project for the 2019 fiscal year, it appears that funding for the European Initiative on Containment is proposed to be increased again, this time by 1,7 billion dollars.

According to a document published on Monday, the administration is requesting 6,5 billion dollars for this purpose. At the same time in the 2017 fiscal year, the Pentagon received 3,4 billion dollars, and for this year requested 4,8 billion.

The European Containment Initiative was created to help US allies in Eastern Europe allay concerns and keep Russia from further invading Europe after the illegal annexation of Crimea and ongoing aggression in the region.

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By the time of the capture of the Crimea, the presence of the American army in Europe was significantly reduced. If in the 1980s there were about 200 thousands of American servicemen on the continent, in 2015 there were about 33 thousands. The US Army had only two brigade fighting groups that were concentrated in Italy and Germany, rather far from the eastern flank of NATO.

Now the army has another armored brigade operating on a continuous rotational basis, which was first deployed last year.

The US Army also participates in combat groups stationed in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland as part of the NATO Enhanced Forward-Based Program, which was established in 2016 to contain Russia.

The increased funding of the European Containment Initiative in 2019 reflects the continuing concern about Russia's actions and behavior, and also corresponds to the new National Defense Strategy, which focuses on China and Russia.

The strategy describes a world in which the decisions of the Pentagon and the organizational structure of the armed forces are determined primarily by the competition of great powers, and not by the fight against terrorism.

Increased funding will allow for more exercises, strengthen the advanced presence and improve the equipment placed at the forefront.

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The representative of the Ministry of Defense told the publication Defense News even before the publication of the draft budget, given that now the main purpose of funding is to contain Russian aggression, more funds will be allocated for weapons and ammunition, and the improvement of tanks and combat vehicles Bradleyas well as a larger presence in Europe on a rotational basis, which will be episodic and not always predictable.

The draft budget does not have a request for the deployment of additional troops in Europe in 2019, but, according to a Pentagon representative, the increase in the contingent will be financed in 2020, when the US Army will begin a more dynamic deployment of forces, which may include periodic exercises involving several brigade combat groups and divisional funds.

According to the official, the exercises will also be of a sudden nature. They will work out the possibility of using pre-stationed stocks of army property in Europe, which by the year of 2020 will be fully modernized and staffed.

According to the draft budget for the 2019 year, funding for the European containment initiative and some other budget expenditures will include equipment and weapon systems that will complete the formation of the second series of stockpiles of the US Army in Europe in advance, said Deputy Director of the Army Budget Office Davis Welch.

This technique includes 40 tanks Abrams Books worth 455 million dollars, 66 multipurpose armored vehicles (230 million dollars), 61 fighting vehicle Bradley (205 million dollars), as well as HMARS high-mobile missile and artillery systems missiles (171 million dollars), Welch told a Pentagon budget briefing on Monday.

According to the Pentagon’s budget documents, 200 millions of dollars will be spent on consulting, training and equipping the Ukrainian military so that the country can “conduct operations within the framework of internal defense to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity while simultaneously supporting the necessary institutional reforms.”

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