US plans to cut bombers, warships for Nato in crisis

BERLIN: The US intends to significantly reduce military contributions available to assist European allies in a crisis, including fighter jets, warships and mid-air refuelling aircraft, German news outlet Spiegel reported on Tuesday.

The Nato alliance is under unprecedented strain, with some European countries concerned that Washington may withdraw outright.

US President Donald Trump has slammed European allies for not spending enough on their militaries and pledged to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany. His ambition to take control of Greenland, a Danish overseas territory, has further inflamed transatlantic tensions.

Trump also fiercely criticised European allies for a lack of support in reopening the Strait of Hormuz for shipping amid the war on Iran, saying he was considering withdrawing from the Nato alliance and questioning whether Washington was bound to honour its mutual defence pact.

Alliance to beef up forces assigned to defend Baltics in war

According to the Spiegel report, an envoy of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed senior officials from member states on the plan at Nato headquarters in Brussels late last week. Three sources familiar with the matter said the Trump administration was planning to tell Nato allies last week it would shrink the pool of military capabilities available to the alliance during a crisis.

The US aims to provide only half the previous number of strategic bombers, the reports said. Specifically, the number of US fighter jets is set to fall by a third, Spiegel cited US envoy Alexander Velez-Green as saying during the closed-door meeting.

The US Navy is also set to make fewer destroyers available to Nato, and the US no longer intends to provide any submarines to the alliance. Under the changes, Europe would be forced to provide its own reconnaissance drones, while the U.S. plans to significantly scale back the provision of armed models.

The US will provide further details at a force generation conference in early June, the Spiegel report said.

A spokeswoman for Nato told Spiegel that there had been an “over-reliance” on the US in Nato force planning and that, with Europe and Canada investing more in defence, military responsibilities within the alliance could be reorganised.

Eastern flank security

Nato will strengthen the defence of its eastern flank with a new structure that would facilitate the rapid deployment of forces in Latvia and Estonia in the event of a war with Russia, two sources familiar with the matter said.

At present, Nato forces in all three Baltic nations as well as northern Poland come under the command of a single multinational headquarters in the Polish city of Szczecin. The planned change underlines the strategic importance of the Baltics, which have been in focus since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Assigning a second corps for the region will allow Nato to bring in “mass at speed”, as one military official described it, addressing the region’s limited strategic depth and vulnerability. When fully operational, an army corps typically commands three divisions, or 40,000 to 60,000 troops. In peacetime, it normally exists as a skeleton command structure, with specialist functions such as artillery, air defence and medics in place to allow rapid deployment of troops when needed.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2026