The US military’s increased focus on Europe is moving away from simply reassuring allies to an effective deterrence against Russia. The Fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act approved earlier this month quadrupled funding for what was originally called the European Reassurance Initiative. The $3.4 billion effort has been renamed the “European Deterrence Initiative,” James said. This money includes more Baltic air policing missions, along with a permanent NATO deployed ground presence in Poland. The USAF funding also covers more infrastructure spending to build up air strips and the availability of fuel and ammunition that could be needed in a contingency, James said Monday during an Atlantic Council event in Washington, D.C.
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.