US拟大砍北约军力，轰炸机减半

According to a report from Der Spiegel, last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Hug Ses' special envoy Veles-Green notified NATO headquarters in Brussels about the aforementioned reduction plans.

Specifically, the U.S. is planning to halve the number of strategic bombers available to NATO, reduce fighter jets by about one-third, and will no longer provide submarines to NATO. The number of调动able naval destroyers will also be reduced. Additionally, European allies will have to take on their own reconnaissance drone capabilities in the future, and the scale of the armed drones provided by the U.S. and aerial refueling aircraft will be reduced simultaneously.

Reuters, citing three informed sources earlier, reported that the Trump administration is preparing to formally notify NATO allies of the adjustments, with more details expected to be announced at the NATO force generation meeting in early June.

This reduction takes place at a time when transatlantic relations are facing their most severe test in recent years. Trump has long criticized European allies for insufficient defense spending, promised to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany, recently criticized the performance of European countries during the Strait of Hormuz crisis, and publicly questioned whether the U.S. should continue to bear the collective defense obligations of NATO.

The response from a NATO spokesperson to Der Spiegel was thought-provoking, acknowledging that the alliance has indeed been "overdependent" on the U.S. in force planning in the past, and stating that as European nations and Canada continue to increase their defense expenditures, a reshuffling of military responsibilities within the alliance may be on the agenda.

For European countries, this signal means that the pressure for defense autonomy has shifted from political discussions to concrete capability gaps, and it will be hard to avoid accelerating defense expenditures.