- Review. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a six-month review of America’s roughly 80,000 troops in Europe at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on June 18, with outcomes tied explicitly to how fast European allies assume primary responsibility for their own defense.
- Accusation. Hegseth called “shameful” the behaviour of unnamed allies who denied US forces base access and overflight rights during operations against Iran — the first time a serving US defense secretary has used that language openly toward NATO partners.
- Floor. Congress has set a statutory minimum of 76,000 US personnel in Europe, limiting any drawdown absent legislative action.
The review was announced at NATO’s defence ministers meeting in Brussels, the first such meeting since the G7 summit in Évian ended last week. Hegseth made clear that its conclusions would be tied directly to allied behaviour: the review is “designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” he said. He characterised the current arrangement as a Cold War relic and declared that “NATO 2.0, an era of freeriding, is over.”
The Iran operations accusation
The most contentious element of Hegseth’s Brussels remarks was his accusation that unnamed NATO allies had denied US forces base access and overflight permissions during American military operations against Iran in 2026, a refusal he said “endangered American personnel.” He described this conduct as “shameful.” The allegation extends a long-running dispute between Washington and several European capitals over whether NATO infrastructure can be used for US operations outside the Euro-Atlantic treaty area. The US had already signalled its frustration with a May 2026 withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany, an action that illustrated the real-world consequences of strained alliance relations, as explored in earlier reporting on the communities living beside American bases.
The burden-sharing backdrop
European allies pushed back on the freeriding characterisation with data: 31 of NATO’s 32 members met the 2% of GDP defence spending target in 2025, up from 18 in 2024. The alliance has since adopted a new 5% target by 2035, though few governments have published credible paths to that figure. The pace of European rearmament has nonetheless accelerated sharply since 2022, driven first by Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine and then by declining confidence in the US commitment to collective defence under the current administration. France has separately pursued bilateral nuclear deterrence arrangements with Central and Eastern European partners, a trend this site has tracked since Paris opened nuclear umbrella talks with NATO’s eastern flank.
What the review timeline signals
A six-month review horizon places its conclusions in December 2026, after US midterm elections. Congressional Republicans expressed concern following Hegseth’s remarks, noting that material changes to US force posture in Europe require coordination with Capitol Hill and that the 76,000-troop floor cannot be waived by the executive unilaterally. That constraint limits the immediate operational impact of the announcement. In the shorter term, European governments face a choice: accelerate spending and bilateral access commitments to head off reductions, or wait to see whether the review produces genuine policy changes or primarily serves as pressure in a burden-sharing negotiation.