For the first time in its 60-year history NATO is facing a serious deficit in its common-funded infrastructure budget. While defence ministers sidestepped the budgetary problems facing the alliance during an informal meeting in Bratislava on 22-23 October, they did agree a deal to release NATO's Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft (AWACS) to fly over Afghanistan.rnNATO owns a fleet of E-3A radar aircraft that provides the alliance with an airborne surveillance, warning and command capability. How to finance the cost of sending these aircraft to Afghanistan has been a contentious issue for some time.
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