U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a six-month review of America’s military footprint in Europe on Thursday, escalating the Trump administration’s push on NATO allies to take greater responsibility for the continent’s defense.
– The review will examine U.S. force posture and basing across Europe, including troop levels, military access, basing rights and overflight permissions.
– Hegseth, speaking at a NATO meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, cast the effort as a test of whether allies are moving quickly enough toward what he called “NATO 3.0” — a harder-edged alliance in which Europe takes the lead on conventional defense while Washington reorients toward other priorities.
– “This will be a real review,” Hegseth told fellow ministers in Brussels.
– The announcement comes after months of U.S. moves to pare back parts of its European presence.
– Washington has already moved to withdraw about 5,000 soldiers from Germany, a step U.S. officials have said would bring American troop levels in Europe closer to where they stood before Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
– The administration has also reduced U.S. contributions to NATO force-planning requirements, including high-end assets such as fighter aircraft, airborne refueling tankers, maritime patrol planes and naval capabilities that European allies may struggle to replace quickly.
– Europe’s wealthiest allies, Hegseth said, can no longer rely on the United States to underwrite the continent’s defense while falling short on spending, readiness and access commitments.
– He also warned that future U.S. contributions to NATO’s common-funded budget would be tied to whether allies meet defense-spending targets.
– “Where other allies do not spend with urgency, our dues contributions will go down,” Hegseth said.
– The message lands ahead of next month’s NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, where President Donald Trump is expected to press allies to turn spending pledges into usable military power.
– For some allies, Hegseth made clear, the review will amount to a report card.
– “Some countries will fail,” he said, “and others will pass with flying colors.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/pete-hegseth-launches-review-us-force-europe