BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a new six-month military review of its European posture during the opening and public portion of Thursday’s NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels.
Led by Hegseth, the Pentagon has made it known that the department intends to reduce its forces – which includes fighter jets, strategic bombers, submarines, and more – in Europe and expects other European countries to fill the gaps left behind. They’ve dubbed the new version of the alliance “NATO 3.0.”
“I’m announcing today, a six month Department of War review that will examine America’s force posture and basing in Europe – up to six months, could be less,” he said. “Let’s call it the NATO 3.0 review. This review will be conducted with the benefit of input from the United States military from European Command, it will involve consultations with the U.S. Congress and with our allies. But make no mistakes, this will be a real review.”
While he announced the review on Thursday, the Trump administration has long talked about the need for Europe to reduce its reliance on the U.S. military and do more to equalize the burden.
“NATO will be a two-way street. It’s only common sense,” he said. “It’s a review some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colors.”
The secretary referenced the lack of European support during the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran as a sign that the NATO alliance was a one-way street. Some European countries said they would help ships transit the Strait of Hormuz once the war ended, while others refused to allow the U.S. military to use their bases and airspace to launch operations.
“As President Trump put it and rightfully so, he gave our allies a test, to support America when we ask for their help and too many failed it. The United States has defended Europe for generations and all the president said was our jets would need to take off from bases in Europe or our ships from ports to strike targets in the Middle East,” Hegseth said. “But too many of our allies said no or tried to down us in arcane legal debates or criticized us publicly for doing what they aren’t prepared or able to do themselves. It was shameful.”
Hegseth’s announcement of the review came during the open portion of the defense minister’s meeting, and at the conclusion of his remarks, the media was ushered out of the room for their closed door discussion.
Ahead of the meeting, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged the U.S. has reduced its contributions to NATO’s crisis forces effective immediately, but said that in the event of a war, “all allies, including the U.S., will max out what they can do to make sure we can fight the war.”
“It is immediately, however, why I’m a bit reluctant to say this is because it’s a planning tool,” he said, adding, “We have to consider the fact that the U.S. is lowering its contribution, still considerable, but somewhat lower than it was in the past.”
He added, “The good news is that when it comes to the planning tool that Europeans are already backfitting a lot of those resources. In other cases, we are nearly there and there are still areas where we need more work.”
Much of Thursday’s meeting was a prelude to next month’s NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey.
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Trump has had a turbulent relationship with Europe dating back to his first term, largely due to his view that they have not contributed an adequate amount to their own defense, instead relying on the U.S. Upon returning to the White House last year, he pushed the NATO alliance to increase the defense spending minimum requirement from 2% of Gross Domestic Product to 5%.
The NATO alliance introduced the 2% requirement in 2014, but it took until last year for every country to meet that minimum. Also last year, under the president’s insistence, the alliance increased that minimum to 5%, which includes 3.5% to fund core defense. Many countries will not meet that mark for years.
In 2025 alone, NATO allies in Europe, combined with Canada, increased their defense spending by 20% compared to the year prior, according to the NATO annual report released in March. That translates to a $90 billion increase in spending.