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.”