NATO funding shortfalls likely to continue.

• Author: Harper, Jon

* The latest Russian military intervention in Ukraine is forcing NATO to refocus its attention on its eastern flank. But concerns about a resurgent Russia will not prompt a large boost in alliance procurement, according to analysts.

Last year, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine and sent troops and equipment to aid pro-Moscow separatists in the country's east, where fighting continues.

"That has really upended security in Europe," said John R. Deni, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College. "It has been a fundamental change in the challenges facing the U.S. and its European allies in how and where we best protect Western and U.S. interests."

Analysts noted that Russian military forces have also been violating other European countries' airspace and territorial waters and flying strategic bombers near the coast of California.

"The new Russian aggression is not limited just to Crimea and Ukraine. Russia is acting much more aggressively all across the board," said Jorge Benitez, a NATO expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C-based think tank.

Concerns about Moscow's intentions have elicited calls by U.S. and NATO leaders for European countries to increase their defense spending, especially when it comes to procurement. Currently only five of the 28 NATO countries--Estonia, Britain, Poland, Greece and the United States--meet the alliance's goal for spending 2 percent of GDP on their militaries, according to NATO.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the United States currently provides 70 percent of all defense spending within the alliance. "We must all accept our fair share of security responsibility," he said at a forum in Berlin in June. "We must all choose to invest in, develop and field new capabilities now and in the future."

Although 18 members have made at least nominal increases in their military budgets this year, overall alliance spending is expected to decrease by 1.5 percent, to $893 billion, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a June press conference in Brussels.

Giri Rajendran, a defense and economics analyst at the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Stuthes said, "You've got a $ 100 billion differential between the aspiration and the actuality" of Europe's contribution to NATO defense spending.

Only seven countries are expected to meet the NATO benchmark of allocating 20 percent of their military budgets to major equipment expenditures and R&D, he added.

Stoltenberg is pushing the alliance to spend more.

"We need to redouble our efforts to reverse this trend," he said. "We are facing more challenges, and we cannot do more with less indefinitely."

But analysts don't expect...