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AMERICA has told its European partners in Nato that some of them will have to increase their defence budgets to pay for precision-guided weapons and other high-tech systems to be able to play a bigger part in a future Kosovo-type operation.
One lesson learnt from the Kosovo air campaign was that Nato needed to increase its military capabilities and "in some cases countries will have to spend more money", William Cohen, the American Defence Secretary, said.
After two days of a Nato defence ministers' meeting during which the lessons of Operation Allied Force, the 78-day air campaign, were reviewed in detail, Mr Cohen said that the United States was already engaged in meeting shortfalls in its forces that were highlighted by the bombing campaign and subsequent peacekeeping mission.
The US was buying more large C17 Globemaster transport planes and more ships for carrying heavy equipment, and developing precision-guided weapons.
Operation Allied Force was all about precision bombing, and most of the strikes were by American aircraft. Mr Cohen said Nato countries that did not have precision weapons should start buying them now - by implication from the US - or develop their own.
The huge gap between the US and other Nato countries in terms of military capability, highlighted by the bombing campaign, was the most contentious issue during the Toronto meeting. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, attending his last Nato meeting before becoming Nato Secretary-General on October 14, agreed that "dumb bombs" (free-fall weapons) were not going to be of any use in the future.
In an interview with The Times at the end of the meeting, he said: "We're limited by international law in the way we bring a conflict to an end. In the Cold War we trained for carpet bombing but today that form of airstrike is simply not acceptable. Despite the genocidal attacks carried out by the Serbs in Kosovo, the public did not want us to do random bombing but expected precision attacks. So, in terms of future procurement, nations will have to buy weapons that are relevant. A lot of what's still in inventories are bombs for yesterday's enemies."