The US intends to significantly reduce its military contribution to NATO. According to Spiegel magazine, a representative of the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, informed senior officials from other member states about this at NATO headquarters late last week.
The publication indicates that as part of the Alliance's force planning, Washington intends to further significantly reduce the volume of key military resources provided to NATO, in particular American fighter jets, warships, drones and tanker aircraft.
Accordingly, the US plans to significantly reduce its previous commitments under the so-called “NATO force model“. The publication notes that the Europeans will have to quickly fill the resulting gaps themselves.
The alliance agreed to this model in 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It outlines which units and military assets of NATO member states the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) has direct access to in order to ensure deterrence and defense in Europe.
“The United States has long pushed for a redistribution of military responsibilities within the Alliance. Under the previous “burden-sharing” system, the United States provided roughly half of the military capacity. The United States is now demanding a “shift of the burden,” the article says.
The publication notes that the US views on future force planning have turned out to be more radical than the Europeans had expected. Before the meeting, European diplomats had assumed that small adjustments would be made over time.
However, according to the magazine, the United States, for example, intends to provide NATO with significantly fewer strategic bombers, and the American contribution to fighter jets is also being considered for a third reduction.
European government officials believe that the decisive factor is the time frame that the Americans attach to their plans.
It is noted that the situation with fighter aircraft can be balanced, for example, by continuing deliveries of F-35 aircraft to European partners in the alliance. The Bundeswehr is scheduled to receive its first aircraft from the United States next year.
Poland has just received its first three F-35s. Meanwhile, the European NATO member states do not have strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Moreover, the two aircraft carriers that the United States has so far declared for emergency use in the NATO Force Model are unlikely to be replaced so easily.
At the same time, the United States has made it clear that it intends to maintain a nuclear deterrent in Europe within the framework of NATO.
The US Navy intends to reduce the number of destroyers deployed to NATO. The US also plans to stop providing submarines to the alliance.
The Europeans must independently provide reconnaissance drones, and the US intends to significantly reduce its participation in armed models.
The US is ready to work closely with all NATO partners, who will now begin to act in a timely manner. Some participants in the meeting saw this as an indirect threat.
The publication recalls that at the NATO summit held in The Hague last June, member states, under pressure from US President Trump, pledged to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP.
It is noted that for several months the US government has been proclaiming its vision of “NATO 3.0“. According to this vision, Europeans should take full responsibility for the conventional defense of their troops as soon as possible. Now, for the first time, other members of the alliance have a sense of how quickly NATO's reorientation must happen.