The armament expenditures have increased with a third in 2007

The armament acquisitions have increased in 2007, with a third against last year, reaching to 1,339 trillion dollar. Almost half of this sum is for United States, which has spent for endowing its army forces as all the other states put together, the last study of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) sustains. While a report of the USA Congress announces that in the next five years, the Pentagon intends to invest about 900 billion dollar in creating and purchasing new fight technologies.

In absolute figures, the armament expenditures have raised to 547 billion dollar (45% of the total at world level), in Great Britain – 59,7 billion, in France – 58,3 billion, in Germany – 36,9 billion. Russia, whose preoccupations in the domain of its own military forces were presented in 2006 at the International Conference on security problems by the president at that time Vladimir Putin, has spent in this purpose in 2007, 35,4 billion dollar, with 10% more then in Italy. There are figures which demonstrate without doubt, that at world level, the race for armaments it hasn’t just ended, but it tends to intensify. According to the predictions of SIPRI, in 2008 this increase of the military expenditures will continue – according to some preliminary estimations they will exceed 1,5 trillion dollar. Interesting is the fact that many  experts think that the financial crisis is to be blamed, the armament production being used by some governments as the last choice to avoid the unemployment in mass and economical disaster.

Leader – Eastern Europe

Analyzed by regions, the report reveals that the leader of the last decade at the chapter of expenditures for armament is Eastern Europe with 162%, much over the indexes of the permanently agitated areas, such as the Middle Orient (62%), South Asia or Africa and Eastern Asia (51%). The last but one position is occupied by Central America (14%) and Occidental Europe (4%). Moreover, it’s about a region where from a few years the armed conflict ended (in Balkans) and there aren’t other military threats. Mainly, it was thought that once with the end of the cold war, Europe will transform in “the market’s continent”, but the peace intertwines with the armaments race, this last phenomenon being characteristic, it’s true, only for the Eastern side of the Old continent.  Which is the cause? The experts believe that this increase of investments in armament is connected with the adhesion to NATO and with the preparations regarding making this step. According to the Alliance, the military budgets of the member states must be of minimum 2% of the GDP, condition which the candidates for adhesion try hard to accomplish. Moreover, there are concrete commitments conditions such as bringing the armed forces at NATO standards, from the point of view of preparation of the militaries and of the technical endowment.
 

“The highest level”

On the other side of the Atlantic, in USA, the armament swallows a lot of money: 900 billion dollar in the following five years for purchasing and creating new armament systems. And about the same value is intended to be allocated in the following 20 years for creating and giving to exploitation of ultra sophisticated aircrafts. “The investments in the programs of purchasing armament are currently situated at the highest level of the last two decades”, the report of the USA Congress mentions. The document mentions that 335 billion from the total of 900 will be directed to the most important programs of purchasing new fight systems. The text also outlines the necessity of checking the already existent financial procedures and of the administrative mechanisms of purchasing the armament and of investments in projects of armament in the purpose of improving the entire system and reducing the delivery period. “Frequently, the process of acquisition by the Defense Department of conventional armament requires between 10 and 15 years from the moment of starting the program until the stage of fabrication”, mentions the report, quoted by the international press.

The fear of others  

 “It isn’t about the «big confrontation», just that USA wants to maintain its supremacy by any cost”, the Russian experts in domain say, according to which “now, the Americans manage to maintain this position in base of printing money. A situation that can’t last forever”, Vladimir Evseev, the military expert from the Institution for world economy and international relations thinks. “Why do the Americans hurry up? Because, according to the Occidental forecasts, in 2015-2020, China will get into the second position in the world. As a result, USA tries hard to maintain its leader position, taking distance of the followers”, Evseev said. Moreover, even the chief of the Pentagon, Robert Gates, recognized that USA is alert at the way in which evolves the strategic forces of China, in case of necessity being prepared to operate the needed changes in their own military programs. Additional, Evseev noted that unlike “Russia which maintains a certain domination on certain segments, as the air-to-air missiles, still from the soviet period, in China isn’t done anything new, all is copied with an astounding precision”, the Russian expert sustains.  

The development of the nuclear potential

In other order of ideas, USA brings into discussion the necessity of developing the nuclear potential. A step dictated not only by an eventual threat by Iran and China, but also of the fears generated by Moscow. Talking at a meeting with the officers of the American army, Robert Gates explained that the role of the nuclear arsenal in the world will increase year by year. And not only because the mass-killing weapons could reach in hands of some dangerous countries such as Iran and North Korea.  In the opinion of the secretary of state of defense, the threat can be just Russia which if it doesn’t invest massive in conventional armament, giving in exchange priority to the nuclear weapon “It’s obvious that in future the Russians will focus their actions on increasing their nuclear force. And the fact that Russia stakes more and more on the nuclear force in the detriment of the conventional types, confirms the importance of extending our nuclear potential as modern force and instrument of intimidation”, the international press agencies quoted the American state secretary. “Russia doesn’t have just two neighbors as USA, separated from the rest of the world by two oceans. Russia has a complex location, at its borders there are nuclear powers, that’s why for Russia the tactic atomic armament represents a factor of intimidation in front of the aggressive pressures carried on against it”, the chief of the 12 Direction of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Vladimir Verhovtev said in this context.

The supersoldier of the future

In other order of ideas, Peter W. Singer, the chief of the project “Security in the XIX century”, from the Institute Brookings, sustains that the Pentagon works from almost 20 years for creating a supersoldier, the researches till now swallowing annually billions of dollar. “We must consider the soldier as a separate system, which we must endow with all types of last generation destructive aircrafts”, Singer quotes the former chief of staff of the USA Air Force, General John Jamper. In Singer’s opinion, The Pentagon has a few basic sceneries for setting up the supersoldier. The first step for giving life to this fantastic idea was made at the end of ’80s, when hardly were profiled the future laptop and cell-phone. The project “Land Warrior”, abandoned at a certain time, assumed the setting up of a perfect soldier, connected to a computerized system in base of the Intel processor, but which weighted at that time about 40 kg. In 2002, turned up “Future Force Warrior”, project based on the nanotechnologies established at the Technological Institute from Massachusetts. For researches was allocated the record sum for the respective institute – 50 million dollar.  According to Singer, the new soldier has an automat machine gun which shoots not only with normal cartridge, but also with mini-missiles caliber 15 mm and a system of thermic supervision.  Another element –glasses, which can be used also as binoculars, and in extreme situations are being transformed in a Mantis system screen, copied from insects, and which sees “through walls”. Moreover, the soldier’s body is covered by a system which scans the data about the body heat, the pulse and the place in which the enemy is situated. In case of attack, the reinforcing realized by nanomaterials, becomes an apron, which can become inclusively nanomuscles.