U.S. Launches NATO Force Review and Scales Back Assets

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a six-month Pentagon review of American force posture and basing in Europe during a June 18 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. Hegseth called for a NATO 3.0 reboot, urging European allies and Canada to assume primary responsibility for the continent's conventional defense. He criticized allies for denying U.S. forces base access and overflight during the war in Iran, calling the lack of support shameful and labeling the current alliance a paper tiger.

As part of this strategic shift to prioritize the Indo-Pacific, the United States is reducing assets available for NATO crises. Reported cuts include reducing F-16 and F-15 fighter jets from 150 to 100, removing all eight aerial refueling tankers, and redeploying an aircraft carrier and a missile-launching submarine. Hegseth further warned that future U.S. financial contributions to NATO's organizational costs will be contingent on allies meeting a defense spending target of 5% of GDP by 2035.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte downplayed the tensions, noting that European allies and Canada increased defense spending by $90 billion in 2025. While German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned that rapid capability withdrawals are dangerous, Rutte maintained that the alliance remains stable. In a related development, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany following criticism of the Iran war strategy. To reassure allies, the NATO Nuclear Planning Group affirmed that strategic nuclear forces remain the alliance's supreme security guarantee. These developments precede a NATO summit scheduled for July 7-8 in Ankara, Turkey.