The Southeastern European Defense Ministerial met this week in Washington, D.C., agreeing to deploy forces to Afghanistan to participate in a six-month peacekeeping mission. NATO had requested SEDM to provide troops to assume the mission as the headquarters of the Kabul Multinational Brigade of the International Security Assistance Force in the country. All of the group’s defense ministers voted to support the upcoming mission, which will begin in February. Ukraine was also formally admitted to SEDM, joining Italy, Greece, Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Croatia.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.