Trump Forces Europe to Fund Its Own Conventional Defense
The Pentagon slashes European force commitments under NATO 3.0, stripping fighter jets, bombers and submarines as Washington pivots toward China and demands European allies assume primary responsibility for their own defense.
The Pentagon is slashing conventional forces across Europe, forcing NATO allies to shoulder primary responsibility for defending their own continent. The United States is pivoting toward China, ending decades of American military subsidy for European security. The shift exposes a stark reality: European allies remain dependent on US taxpayers for their own defense.
Under a "NATO 3.0" framework detailed in a Der Spiegel report, Washington will cut US fighter jet contributions by one-third, halve strategic bombers, eliminate submarine commitments to NATO, and sharply reduce aerial refueling aircraft. The United States plans to stop providing submarines entirely and expects European allies to supply their own reconnaissance and armed drones. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the changes present "an opportunity for allies to demonstrate that they have heard President Trump's call for them to step up and take primary responsibility for Europe's conventional defense."
Elbridge Colby, under secretary of war for policy, laid out the strategy in a Feb. 12 speech. "What is needed is a 'NATO 3.0' — something much closer to 'NATO 1.0' than the approach of the last thirty-five years," Colby said. "This 'NATO 3.0' requires much greater efforts by our allies to step up and assume primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe." Washington will retain its nuclear deterrent while withdrawing the conventional forces that have formed the backbone of European security since the Cold War.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spelled out the reasoning on May 22 in Helsingborg, Sweden, telling NATO foreign ministers that "eventually there will be fewer US troops in Europe than there have been historically." Rubio stressed the need to position forces for a "two-front conflict." Intelligence assessments cited in Der Spiegel identify 2027 as a potential date for a Chinese offensive against Taiwan. The shift reallocates resources from European defense to counter what Washington considers an existential threat from China.
European officials were "blindsided" by the scale and speed of the American demands, according to the Der Spiegel report. Some allies read Washington's insistence on rapid compliance as an "indirect threat." Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard called the situation "confusing indeed." NATO partners must submit capability gap proposals by early June, with formalization slated for the July summit in Ankara. The deadline forces a concrete reckoning on European military readiness.
European defense spending jumped 14 percent to $864 billion in 2025, yet the continent lacks the industrial base to replace the high-end American capabilities it is losing. "The defense industrial capability in Europe and the United States has atrophied," said Jim Townsend, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO policy at CNAS. "They lost the scale to be able to surge a lot more production." Political spending commitments cannot instantly replace missing industrial capacity.
The United States maintains more than 80,000 troops across Europe. Washington plans to withdraw 5,000 from Germany within six to twelve months. Pentagon adviser Alexander Velez-Green briefed NATO policy directors on May 22 in a closed-door Brussels meeting, outlining reduction targets that Der Spiegel described as "more radical than Europeans expected." The compressed timeline tests European promises of "strategic autonomy" — promises that have consistently lacked concrete, combat-credible capabilities.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte acknowledged the shift was "to be expected." "Europe is spending so much more to basically end the overreliance on one ally when it comes to defense of the totality of NATO," he said on May 20. Defense analysts point out that European nations lack strategic bombers, submarine capability, and the industrial capacity to quickly fill the gaps left by departing American forces.
The Trump administration's restructuring addresses what conservative critics have long identified as European free-riding on American defense spending. For decades, European allies relied on US taxpayers to provide the "guts" of NATO's conventional force model while failing to develop comparable capabilities. The new framework removes high-end conventional assets that Europe cannot replicate, forcing allied governments to move from vague diplomatic aspirations to concrete procurement and industrial planning.
The July summit in Ankara will formalize the new burden-sharing model through a revised NATO Force Model plan. The framework reflects Washington's determination to shift military resources toward the Indo-Pacific. European defense spending increases carry political weight but cannot bridge the capability gap created by the withdrawal of American strategic bombers, destroyers, and submarines that have underpinned continental security.
The restructuring exposes the gap between European political promises and actual military capability. It dismantles a structural vulnerability in which European security relied disproportionately on American conventional forces. As Washington pivots toward countering China, European allies must demonstrate whether their increased defense spending translates into combat-credible capabilities. Decades of dependence may have left them unprepared for primary responsibility for their own defense.