Of all European Union member states, Greece requires the longest service. All Greek males between nineteen and forty-five are required to serve in the army for at least one year. The Compass makes clear that, to the degree that the EU has a military role, this will be limited to assisting partners and potentially carrying out medium-sized military operations. With the European Peace Facility (EPF) set up in 2021, the EU can now finance the provision of lethal assistance to partners, as it has done with Ukraine. Russia remains the single most powerful military force in Europe even though its military forces and industrial base have greatly atrophied since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless This week, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told the House of Commons that Brussels and London had achieved a consensus on the “majority” of an agreement for the U.K. to join a military project under the EU’s defense coordination group, known as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO.) It is a dramatic reversal given only three In 2018, the number of U.S. troops in Europe bottomed out at around 65,000, the posture history shows. The big picture: Since Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's border began in October, the U.S. and other NATO countries have deployed thousands of troops to reinforce eastern-flank countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria This week in the south of Spain, the European Union is holding its first live military exercise — an effort to show the world it’s a serious security and defense player that can operate without NATO. Air, land and maritime armed forces from nine EU countries will land on a beach to rescue a fictitious European ally called Seglia that's I7Qg1. Germany’s defense ministry has plans to expand its force by roughly 20,000 soldiers. That will be difficult. In 2021, 17.5 percent of military posts above the level of enlisted ranks were vacant The Pentagon this week moved six F-35 fighter jets and a slew of other warplanes to Eastern Europe to shore up support for NATO allies. Mr. Austin also ordered an infantry battalion task force The Compass makes clear that, to the degree that the EU has a military role, this will be limited to assisting partners and potentially carrying out medium-sized military operations. With the European Peace Facility (EPF) set up in 2021, the EU can now finance the provision of lethal assistance to partners, as it has done with Ukraine. F rom military-grade drones to sensor systems and experimental technology, the EU and its members have spent hundreds of millions of euros over the past decade on technologies to track down and The country's reckoning with its own history has, for decades, prevented it from building a big military, but now there's a war on Europe's doorstep. And as NPR's Rob Schmitz reports, the

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