U.S. PLANS TO REDUCE NATO CRISIS SUPPORT AS EUROPE FACES DEFENSE GAP

The United States plans to significantly reduce the military assets it would make available to NATO during a crisis, according to Reuters reporting on a German Der Spiegel report. The planned reductions include fewer strategic bombers, fighter jets, warships, refuelling aircraft, and drones assigned to NATO force planning. The reports also said the U.S. no longer intends to provide submarines to NATO under the affected framework.

The distinction is important: this is not the same as every U.S. aircraft, bomber, or submarine being physically removed from Europe overnight. The reported change concerns military capabilities Washington would commit to NATO’s crisis and war planning, including the NATO Force Model. That model is designed to give the alliance a larger pool of high-readiness forces across land, sea, air, cyber, and other domains. NATO says the model more than tripled the number of high-readiness forces potentially available to the alliance compared with the earlier NATO Response Force.

According to Reuters and Der Spiegel, the U.S. would provide only about half the previous number of strategic bombers, reduce fighter jets by roughly one-third, make fewer destroyers available, and sharply reduce armed drone support. Europe would also be expected to provide more of its own reconnaissance drones. Further details are expected at a NATO force generation conference in early June.

NATO’s core promise remains collective defence. Article 5 says an armed attack against one ally is considered an attack against all, but NATO’s own explanation notes that each ally decides what action it considers necessary, and that assistance may or may not involve armed force. That means force planning matters: the treaty promise is political and legal, but deterrence depends on what forces are actually available, ready, and assigned in a crisis.

NATO has already been moving toward higher European and Canadian defence spending. The alliance says all allies met or exceeded the earlier 2% of GDP defence-spending target in 2025, while European allies and Canada increased defence spending by 20% from 2024. NATO also says European allies and Canada invested more than $574 billion in defence in 2025, adjusted to 2021 prices.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has tried to frame U.S. force adjustments as gradual and structured. Reuters reported last week that Rutte said changes to U.S. forces in Europe would not undermine NATO defence plans and that discussions over U.S. crisis contributions had been underway for more than a year. He also linked the change to increased European and Canadian defence investment.

For Europe, the challenge is timing. Even if allies are increasing defence spending, replacing U.S. capabilities is not simple. Strategic bombers, submarines, long-range strike assets, refuelling aircraft, reconnaissance drones, destroyers, air defence, logistics, and command systems require years of investment, training, industrial capacity, and coordination. The U.S. can reduce commitments faster than Europe can replace every gap.

The planned shift does not mean NATO disappears or that the United States has formally abandoned Article 5. It does mean the alliance is being pushed toward a new division of labour, with Europe and Canada expected to provide more of the conventional defence backbone while Washington preserves greater flexibility for other theatres, including the Indo-Pacific. Reuters previously reported that U.S. officials had set a 2027 deadline for Europe to take more responsibility for NATO conventional defence, though there was uncertainty over how Washington would measure progress.

The immediate question is whether this becomes an orderly transition or a strategic gap. If European allies and Canada can build the needed capabilities quickly enough, the shift may strengthen NATO’s long-term self-reliance. If they cannot, the alliance could face a period where its political commitments remain strong on paper while the military assets behind them are stretched thinner than before.

Fact-check date: 26 May 2026
Sources: Reuters, NATO, Der Spiegel reporting via Reuters

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