Free Republic

European defence ministers facing shrinking budgets agreed Thursday to join forces to get more air-to-air refueling planes, deploy extra field hospitals and exploit "green" energy. The projects are part of the European Union's efforts to pool and share military resources as the debt crisis and a US strategic pivot towards Asia forces Europe's armed forces to band together. The ministers, who met in Brussels, emphasized in a statement "the urgent political necessity to retain and develop the military capabilities for sustaining and enhancing" their common security policy. They signed a political declaration to pursue ways to purchase or share airborne...