US to sharply cut military contributions to NATO

The US has told European allies it plans to significantly cut its military contributions to NATO and urged them to move quickly to close the gap, Germany's Der Spiegel reported Tuesday.

A senior Pentagon official briefed European allies on the Trump administration's plans during a confidential meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels last week, the magazine reported, adding that European officials were taken aback by the scale of the planned drawdown.

Der Spiegel reported that Alexander Velez-Green, an envoy for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, told allies that the United States plans to commit much fewer assets to NATO's pool of readily available forces reducing the number of deployable drones, fighter jets, aerial refueling aircraft, as well as warships and other naval assets.

According to the magazine, the US will reduce the number of strategic bombers committed to NATO and is weighing a roughly one-third cut in its fighter-aircraft contribution. Diplomatic and military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington would make fewer destroyers available and is not planning to provide any submarines to the "NATO Force Model," which determines the designated national forces made available to the alliance.

Military sources said Washington has told European allies it will maintain nuclear deterrence forces in Europe but expects European countries to assume primary responsibility for conventional defense. The planned reductions, the sources said, are intended to give the United States greater flexibility in the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific by avoiding formal pledges of specific assets to NATO.