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The United States wants Europe to take over most of NATO's conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027, Pentagon officials told diplomats in Washington this week, a short deadline that some European officials found unrealistic.
The message, recounted by five sources familiar with the discussion, including a US official, was conveyed at a meeting in Washington this week of Pentagon staff overseeing NATO policy and several European delegations.
Shifting this burden from the U.S. to the European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would dramatically change the way the United States, a founding member of the postwar alliance, works with its most important military partners.
At the meeting, Pentagon officials indicated that Washington was still not satisfied with the steps Europe has taken to increase its defense capabilities since Russia's expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
US officials told their counterparts that if Europe fails to meet the 2027 deadline, the US could stop participating in some NATO defense coordination mechanisms, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Some officials on Capitol Hill are aware of and concerned about the Pentagon's message to Europeans, a US official said.
Conventional defense capabilities include non-nuclear assets, from troops to weapons, and officials did not explain how the US would measure Europe's progress toward bearing the bulk of the burden.
It was also unclear whether the 2027 deadline represented the Trump administration's position or just the views of some Pentagon officials. There is considerable disagreement in Washington over the military role the US should play in Europe.
Some European officials said a deadline of 2027 was unrealistic, regardless of how Washington measures progress, as Europe needs more than money and political will to replace some US capabilities in the short term.
Among other challenges, NATO allies face production backlogs for military equipment they are trying to buy. While U.S. officials have encouraged Europe to buy more U.S.-made materials, some of the most valuable U.S.-made weapons and defense systems would take years to deliver if ordered today.
The US also contributes capabilities that cannot simply be purchased, such as the unique intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance that have proven key to the war effort in Ukraine.
Asked for comment, a NATO official speaking on behalf of the alliance said European allies had begun to take on more responsibility for the continent's security, but did not comment on the 2027 deadline.
"Allies have recognized the need to invest more in defense and shift the burden on conventional defense" from the United States to Europe, the official said.
The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
European nations have broadly accepted US President Donald Trump's demand that they take more responsibility for their own security and have pledged big increases in defence spending.
The European Union has set a goal to make the continent self-defensive by 2030 and says it needs to fill gaps in its air defenses, drones, cyberwarfare capabilities, munitions and other areas. Officials and analysts said that even that deadline is too ambitious.
The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that European allies should contribute more to the NATO alliance, but it is not always clear what the president's stance on NATO is.
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump frequently attacked European allies and said he would encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade NATO countries that did not spend their fair share on defense.
But at the annual NATO leaders' summit in June, Trump enthusiastically praised European leaders for agreeing to a U.S. plan to raise the annual defense spending target for member states to 5% of gross domestic product.
In the months since, Trump has oscillated between a tougher line on Russia, the bloc's main adversary, and, more recently, a willingness to negotiate with Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. European officials have complained that they were largely excluded from those negotiations.
At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers this week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said it was "clear" that NATO allies must take responsibility for Europe's defense.
"Successive US administrations have said this in one form or another for almost my entire life, but our administration means what it says," Landau wrote in X. /Adapted from Reuters/
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