The United States plans to significantly reduce the aircraft and warships it makes available for NATO operations in Europe, according to two senior European officials briefed on the decision, in what analysts describe as the most concrete step yet by the Trump administration to scale back eight decades of American military protection for its European allies.
The planned cuts, communicated to allies in early June in a written document parts of which were reviewed by The New York Times, include reducing the number of F-16 and F-15E fighter jets assigned to Europe from roughly 150 to 100, cutting maritime reconnaissance aircraft from 26 to 15, and eliminating all eight aerial refuelling tanker jets previously available to the continent. The plans also call for reallocating a missile-launching submarine, an aircraft carrier and the warships and jets attached to it, as well as one of two bomber groups previously assigned to European defence.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the specific figures and referred to a general statement issued last week by its European Command, which acknowledged its intention to reduce commitments in Europe without providing detail. The European officials who described the document spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.
An alliance-wide reduction
The details provide the clearest picture yet of an administration that has long complained about the burden the United States shoulders within NATO. President Trump has for years called on European members to defend themselves with less American support and has threatened to leave the alliance altogether. Until now, however, his administration had followed through only with smaller, piecemeal announcements about individual country withdrawals. The June document marks a departure: a sweeping, alliance-wide reduction communicated in writing to NATO partners.
American officials have indicated the drawdown will take effect very soon, well ahead of the timeline European governments had been preparing for. The abrupt reduction would limit NATO's ability to monitor Russian submarine traffic, conduct long-range surveillance, and launch Tomahawk cruise missiles deep into Russian territory. Though European members possess some similar capabilities, experts note that American deployment of those weapons carries greater deterrent weight with Russia.
"While each of these cuts can be managed individually, together they represent a significant posture change and pose challenges to European deterrence readiness across the spectrum," Giuseppe Spatafora of the EU Institute for Security Studies told the Times.
The cuts come at a particularly exposed moment for Europe. In late May, a Russian drone struck an apartment building in Romania, the first such attack on a major urban area in NATO territory. Combined with a series of other Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace, the incident has deepened European anxieties about whether Russian aggression could extend beyond Ukraine. The announcement also follows Britain's defence secretary resigning on Thursday over what he described as insufficient military spending, and Germany confirming this week its withdrawal from a joint fighter jet programme with France and Spain.
The head of the Pentagon's European Command, General Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO's top military commander, said in early June that there had been "an unhealthy codependence in the NATO Force Model on US forces" and that change was coming. "The potential reality of simultaneous conflict in multiple theatres demands it," he said.
American officials have said publicly that the reallocation is linked to the need to redirect military resources toward the Indo-Pacific region. US troops in Europe will still constitute one of the largest NATO forces on the continent, and European leaders, anticipating a need to rely less on Washington, have already begun rearming their countries. But for some allies, the scale of specific assets matters less than an underlying question of credibility. "NATO's main problem is that, as long as Trump is president, there is no longer any faith that the US would come to the Europeans' aid in the event of an emergency," German lawmaker Anton Hofreiter told the Times.
Source: The New York Times
