Senior Pentagon commanders are expected to submit plans in the coming days to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for reducing the US military presence in Europe, NBC News reported, citing security sources.
The proposals form part of a NATO review the Pentagon announced in June. Hegseth is expected to reach a final decision by November 6.
One option under consideration would withdraw one-third of the estimated 68,000 US troops stationed in Europe, largely affecting soldiers in Germany, Italy and Spain. A second scenario would see 40,000 soldiers leave with military aircraft, ships and weapons. The US may also shift troops from Central or Western Europe toward NATO’s eastern flank, closer to Russia.
Hegseth alluded to the review at a NATO meeting in Brussels in June, saying changes were designed to ensure the alliance moves “fast and irreversibly toward Europe leasing and stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe.”
NBC News reported that Hegseth called European allies’ decision not to grant US forces base access to launch attacks on Iran “shameful,” saying those allies “put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight.”
Reductions are already under way. About half of the 2,000 US soldiers in Romania departed last year, and some 5,000 US troops are withdrawing from Germany. The German withdrawal was announced in May after Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised the US war on Iran.
The moves follow a year of deteriorating relations between Washington and several European capitals. The dispute has run alongside earlier US military build-ups in the Middle East tied to the campaign against Iran, which Spain and Italy publicly opposed.
Senators Roger Wicker and Representative Mike Rogers, both Republicans, warned that the departures could send “the wrong signal to” Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said last January that NATO members should spend 5 percent of GDP on defence. NATO members have agreed to raise defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035; members are still struggling to meet the current 2 percent target.
Hegseth is expected to finalise his decision by November 6.