Pentagon envoy Alexander Velez-Green told NATO officials behind closed doors in Brussels that Washington intends to cut 50% of US long-range strike assets in Europe, TVP World learned on Tuesday. Former NATO military officials told TVP World on Wednesday said the scale of the planned drawdown was accurate, but described it as a medium-to-long-term process that European allies had, at least partly, anticipated. Nonetheless, the move is expected to affect conventional assets, including fighter jets, bombers, aircraft carriers, drones and submarines, while the US nuclear deterrent is set to remain intact. Washington wants European allies to move quickly to compensate for the shortfall, with plans expected before the NATO summit in Ankara in July. ‘Europe needs time’ Piotr Szymański, a senior fellow in the Security and Defense Department at the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies, told TVP World Europe would find it challenging to replace the US assets. As of 2025, the US provides about 44% of NATO’s overall military capability, Szymański noted, but that ratio is expected to move toward 30% US and 70% Europe and Canada. “Europe needs more time to step up and be able to deliver capabilities such as submarines, surveillance, targeting, which are high-end capabilities,” Szymański said. A Polish deputy technology minister described the systems affected as representing a “critical deterrent function,” but added that the cuts are not necessarily a “foregone conclusion.” A question of political will Fabrice Pothier, CEO of geopolitics consultancy firm Rasmussen Global, said the issue is not only the number of forces available to Europe, but the signal Washington is sending. “The United States signaling some ambiguity is undermining the very essence of NATO,” he said. He argued that Europe should begin preparing a “plan B,” either through the increasing European influence on NATO or a new coalition capable of providing deterrence. “Donald Trump is accelerating anyway,” he said. The Trump administration explicitly stated in its National Security Strategy last December and National Defense Strategy released in January that Europe must shoulder more of the burden for its own defense. A NATO diplomat told TVP World that the latest move could represent an opportunity for European allies to ramp up their capabilities to better calibrate deterrence against Russia while reducing reliance on the United States. At the same time, US lawmakers are weighing a more permanent military footprint in Poland, with a draft defense bill opening the door to stationing one or two US Army brigade combat teams on NATO’s eastern flank.
