LONDON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The economic situation is forcing militaries around the world to cut back, Jane's Defence Weekly reports in its annual year-end survey.
Ambitious procurement projects are being scrapped and modernization programs postponed. Many countries will be unable even to maintain current weaponry levels, the report said.
In Britain, drastic cuts recommended in the Strategic Defense and Security Review will spell "nothing less than a substantial degrading of the nation's ability to act upon the world stage," Jane's said. The Royal Navy is mothballing or selling one of two carriers it ordered, and maritime reconnaissance aircraft will be canceled before they can even enter service.
Not all nations are reducing arms spending, however. In Asia, North Korea's aggressive moves and China's expansion are leading neighbors to boost their forces.
With the United States officially ending Iraq combat operations, the Afghan war was the world's largest active armed conflict in 2010.
The Pentagon is undergoing a major budget overhaul after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced an initiative to streamline spending and transfer funding from overhead to war-fighting. Gates is looking for $100 billion in savings over the next five years.
Whole units like the Joint Forces Command, which is charged with developing operating concepts, have been recommended for abolition.
Meanwhile, financial pressures forced the U.S. Navy to largely scale back its goal of a 313-ship fleet.
In the fiscal year 2011 budget, it is recommending a 30-year shipbuilding plan averaging $15.9 billion a year. The fleet would meet the 313-ship target between 2020 and 2026 but then fall to 288 vessels in 2032.
In Europe, Germany, Spain, Norway and the Czech Republic are joining Britain in various cutbacks, and NATO's Lisbon summit focused on cost savings.
NATO is reducing the number of headquarters in its command structure from 11 to seven, and personnel from more than 13,000 to 8,950. Russia is boosting cooperation with the alliance on both missile defense and Afghanistan.
With conflict zones from Israel-Palestine to Korea, Jane's termed Asia "the world's most eventful region."
India improved its ties with the United States in 2010 but saw relations with Pakistan and China deteriorate. And it faces persistent internal security crises from a widespread Maoist insurgency and a renewed campaign of resistance in Kashmir.
As for China, "a territorial row with Japan, obstruction over North Korea and saber-rattling over its 'sovereignty' of the East China and South China seas saw the Communist Party's carefully choreographed narrative of 'peaceful rise' take a series of hits to its credibility," Jane's said.
