The United States has privately urged European allies to assume responsibility for the bulk of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities by 2027, a timeline that several European officials say is far too short to be realistic, according to multiple sources familiar with discussions in Washington this week.
The message was delivered during a meeting between Pentagon officials overseeing NATO policy and several European diplomatic delegations. Five individuals familiar with the conversation — including one US official — described the exchange as unusually blunt, underscoring growing American frustration over what Washington regards as insufficient European progress in strengthening defense capabilities since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
If European allies fail to meet the 2027 benchmark, Pentagon officials warned, the United States may scale back or cease participation in some NATO defense coordination mechanisms. The officials did not detail how the Pentagon might measure Europe’s progress or what specific benchmarks would determine whether the continent had taken on a majority of the alliance’s burden.
The proposal signals a dramatic potential shift in how Washington, a founding NATO member and its principal military contributor, envisions its future role in the transatlantic alliance. The US has long provided NATO with critical non-nuclear capabilities — from advanced intelligence and surveillance to air and missile defense assets — that Europe has not been able to match.
According to one US official, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill have expressed concern over the Pentagon’s messaging, noting that there are internal divisions within Washington about how quickly — or even whether — the US should reduce its role in Europe’s security architecture.
For European officials, however, the message landed with a sense of incredulity. Several said that taking over the majority of NATO’s conventional defense responsibilities by 2027 would be impossible under current conditions, regardless of political intentions or budget increases. Beyond boosting spending, Europe would need to rapidly expand industrial production, overcome severe equipment backlogs, and acquire capabilities that are either unavailable for purchase or take years to manufacture.
A number of highly sought-after US defense systems — including missile interceptors, long-range precision weapons, and advanced aircraft — already face delivery timelines stretching late into the decade. More critically, some US-provided capabilities, such as certain intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms, have no immediate equivalent in Europe and cannot simply be bought off the shelf.
A NATO spokesperson, asked about the exchanges, acknowledged that European allies have taken on a larger role in defending the continent but declined to comment on the 2027 deadline. “Allies have recognized the need to invest more in defense and shift the burden on conventional defense from the US to Europe,” the spokesperson said.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson reiterated Washington’s call for Europe to lead on its own defense, saying the US remains committed to working through NATO channels “to strengthen the alliance and ensure its long-term viability” as Europe assumes more responsibility.
European governments have already pledged significant increases in defense spending, spurred both by the war in Ukraine and by sustained pressure from US President Donald Trump. The European Union has set 2030 as its target for having the capacity to defend the continent independently, though many officials and analysts see even that timeline as extremely ambitious given deficits in air defense, munitions stocks, drones, cyber capabilities, and industrial output.
Trump’s stance on NATO has often been contradictory. On the campaign trail in 2024, he repeatedly criticized European allies for underspending on defense and even suggested he would encourage Russia to target NATO states that failed to meet alliance benchmarks. Yet at the NATO summit in June, he warmly praised European leaders for agreeing to raise defense spending targets to 5 percent of GDP.
More recently, Trump’s shifting posture on Russia — oscillating between hard-line rhetoric and openness to negotiations over Ukraine — has unsettled European governments, many of whom say they have been sidelined in US-led diplomatic engagements with Moscow.
At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers this week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau reiterated Washington’s stance, writing on X that it was “obvious” Europe should take primary responsibility for its own defense. “Successive US administrations have been saying this … but our Administration means what it says,” he wrote.
