BRUSSELS — NATO’s top military leader is developing backup defense strategies for Europe in the event of a Russian attack, following a major announcement from the United States that it will reduce the number of aircraft and warships it makes available to the alliance during security crises. The alliance’s longstanding core deployment framework, known as the NATO Force Model, has served as the primary plan for coordinating military assets from 32 member states across peacetime, crisis, and full conflict, outlining what resources commanders can draw on in phases during the first six months of any armed confrontation. But last month, the Pentagon notified its NATO partners that it would scale back its European theater commitments to reorient its military posture toward growing strategic threats in the Indo-Pacific, primarily from China.
This announcement capped more than a year of anxious waiting among European allies and Canada, after the Trump administration first flagged that Europe would no longer be counted as the United States’ top security priority. While allies have known for months that defense cuts were coming, they have remained in the dark about the scale, speed, and specific scope of the reductions. U.S. General Alex Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, emphasized in comments at the ILA Berlin Air Show Thursday that the U.S. still remains committed to providing limited, but strategically critical, capabilities to the alliance.
“Our priority right now is focusing on capabilities that we can acquire rapidly, deploy quickly, scale at pace, and sustain over extended periods of time – that applies to long-range fires systems as well as unmanned aerial systems,” Grynkewich said. “These types of assets will help us offset near-term defense risks if we are called on to deter aggression and defend alliance territory.”
Following a June 2-3 meeting of alliance defense leaders to assess capability gaps created by the U.S. drawdown, Grynkewich called on European NATO members and Canada to fill these gaps by contributing additional manned combat aircraft, unmanned drones, and naval vessels to the alliance’s crisis stockpile, saying the contributions are needed “now and in the immediate near term.” While the exact details of the U.S. cuts remain classified, independent media reports in Germany and the United States indicate the drawdown will remove an entire aircraft carrier strike group, including its accompanying warships and air wing, plus a nuclear-powered submarine from the European theater. The cuts are also expected to eliminate access to dozens of fighter jets and multiple aerial refueling tankers, assets that are already in critically short supply across European armed forces, leaving alliance leaders uncertain where they can source these capabilities on short notice. The White House has demanded that allies present detailed backfill plans ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for July 7-8 in Turkey, where President Donald Trump will meet with alliance heads of state and government.
In a separate development announced Friday, NATO military headquarters confirmed it will implement additional cuts to its Kosovo peacekeeping force, withdrawing an unspecified number of troops and pieces of equipment. The Kosovo Force, better known as KFOR, has been deployed to the region since 1999, with a mandate to maintain peace between Kosovo and neighboring Serbia. At the height of its deployment, KFOR numbered 50,000 troops, but it has been gradually scaled back over decades as regional tensions cooled. A 1,000-strong reinforcement was deployed to the region in 2023, however, after a new wave of violent ethnic unrest broke out.
Grynkewich noted that current security conditions in Kosovo allow NATO to further adjust the force’s size and operational posture. His office declined to specify which units would be withdrawn, or whether any U.S. troops would be part of the drawdown. “This adjustment is not about raw troop numbers, it is about optimizing the force to better guarantee safety and security for all people living in Kosovo and across the wider Balkan region,” a spokesman for Grynkewich explained. Currently, the U.S. deploys 590 troops to KFOR, making it the second-largest contributing nation after Italy, which has 907 personnel in the theater. The U.S. also stations a fleet of Black Hawk helicopters at Camp Bondsteel, the large U.S. military base that has operated in Kosovo since the 1999 intervention.
For all the ongoing adjustments to NATO’s defense posture, Grynkewich stressed that there is no immediate threat of a Russian attack on alliance territory. Current intelligence assessments and observations of Russian force movements indicate “Russia is not seeking a direct armed conflict with NATO,” he said. Russia remains heavily committed to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and continues to face significant challenges recruiting enough troops to sustain its current operations. Even so, European governments and intelligence services have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could have the capacity to launch an attack on other parts of Europe within three to five years, particularly if he succeeds in securing his territorial aims in Ukraine.
Associated Press correspondents Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo contributed reporting to this article.