NATO: the United States wants to drastically reduce the number of planes and warships it deploys

“We are still in NATO, but NATO needs significant changes,” declared the head of American diplomacy Marco Rubio at the beginning of June.

Washington informed the Europeans of its plan to significantly reduce the number of planes – up to a third of fighters – and military ships deployed in Europe by the United States within the framework of NATO, according to the

New York Times

.

The American daily, citing two senior European officials, reported on Friday June 12 a written document in which Washington detailed to its partners, at the beginning of June, the planned arms redeployments. The latter would weigh on

NATO’s ability to launch long-range strikes

and to carry out surveillance operations, while the Atlantic alliance has been weakened by criticism of Donald Trump since the start of his second term, in January 2025.

A summit of the organization will be held in Türkiye in July. The American president confirmed his presence there, after violently criticizing the Europeans for their refusal to commit to his side in the war he launched with Israel against Iran.

According to the project revealed by the daily, the United States wants ”

reduce the number of F-16 and F-15E fighters from around 150 to 100

reduce the number of maritime reconnaissance aircraft from 26 to 15 and remove the eight aerial refueling aircraft previously available to Europe.

Aircraft carrier, submarine, bombers…

The project also includes repurposing a missile submarine, an aircraft carrier, several warships with dozens of aircraft on board, as well as one of two groups of bombers previously assigned to the defense of Europe.

The timeline was not specified, according to the

New York Times

.

Donald Trump has long demanded that Europeans take greater responsibility for their own security. As on many other issues, he multiplies contradictory statements on the subject. He thus took his European allies by surprise by recently announcing the sending of some 5,000 additional soldiers to Poland, a few days after announcing the withdrawal of an identical number in Germany.

“We are still in NATO, but NATO needs significant changes”

declared the head of American diplomacy Marco Rubio at the beginning of June. He estimated that the next summit, which will bring together the 32 member countries at the beginning of July in the Turkish capital Ankara, “is undoubtedly the most important in the history of the organization, because there are certain issues which must be clarified and resolved”.