Pentagon Weighs Pulling 25,000-40,000 Troops From Europe — Up to Half the US Contingent

Pentagon Weighs Pulling 25,000-40,000 Troops From Europe — Up to Half the US Contingent

NEW SUBJECT (Sept 20, 2026). NBC News reported (Sept 17, per Anadolu's recap) that the Pentagon is considering "a drastic plan to pull planes, ships, weapons and tens of thousands of U.S. troops from Europe¹, despite warnings from NATO allies about the growing threat of Russian aggression," per seven current and former US and Western officials. The reduction could be roughly one-third of all US troops in Europe — about 25,000 of ~80,000 — "or it could be even larger, as much as half, or up to 40,000 troops."

Timeline and mechanics. The options flow from a six-month Pentagon force-posture review. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich — who heads US European Command and serves as NATO's supreme allied commander — was to deliver an initial analysis to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday, Sept 18, with a final recommendation due Nov. 6 before any proposal goes to President Trump. Germany, Italy and Spain, which host the largest US deployments, are the likely affected countries; options include repositioning some forces toward NATO's eastern flank. The report also disclosed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio intervened in June after the Pentagon prepared to brief NATO defense ministers on large-scale reductions — an interagency rift over the review itself.

Why it matters now. The drawdown study lands simultaneously with Europe's self-strengthening moves tracked in NATO's East Moves on Nuclear Deterrence: Lithuania Votes to Lift Its Constitutional Ban on Nuclear Weapons (Trump's new US Army base in Poland, Europe's first Patriot plant), Carney in Strasbourg: "Not Proposing a Third Bloc" as Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Canada-EU "Associate Membership" (Canada-EU associate membership), and the EU's raised alert level for Operation Aspides in the Red Sea. A US cut of one-third to one-half of its European contingent — while Russia holds wartime Duma elections (Russia's Wartime Duma Election: United Russia Sweeps Preliminary Results With ~58% of Party-List Vote and Claims of 300+ Seats) — is the sharpest possible test of the "Europeans must defend themselves" thesis: either European capital and industry backfill the gap, or NATO's eastern deterrence thins. No final decision has been made; the Nov. 6 recommendation is the next hard milestone.