Grynkewich Details US NATO Force Model Cuts, Tells Europe and Canada to Fill Them
Mons, 3 June 2026
Key points
- Speaking after the 2–3 June force-sourcing conference at SHAPE, General Alexus Grynkewich — SACEUR and US European Command commander — said European allies and Canada must quickly increase the manned and unmanned aircraft and naval vessels they assign to NATO defence plans as the United States 'rightsizes' its NATO Force Model contribution and refocuses forces elsewhere
- Washington notified allies of the reduction in Brussels on 22 May; per Spiegel reporting, US fighter aircraft available to NATO fall by a third, fewer destroyers and no submarines are offered to the crisis pool, and armed reconnaissance is scaled back
- US European Command frames the move under 'NATO 3.0' and the 2026 National Defense Strategy's burden-sharing direction, with Europe to take 'primary responsibility for its own conventional defense'; the initiative is led by Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby
- NATO military headquarters (Colonel Martin O'Donnell) says no defence gaps are expected: the categories are ones where allies 'already have or soon will have sufficient capabilities'
General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, used the close of the 2–3 June force-sourcing conference at SHAPE to set out the first public detail of the US reduction to the NATO Force Model — a third fewer fighter aircraft, fewer destroyers, no submarines, less armed reconnaissance — and to tell European allies and Canada to assume the difference 'quickly'.
The statement converts last month's private notification into a public demand signal. US officials informed allies in Brussels on 22 May that Washington would 'rightsize' its contribution to the NATO Force Model — the pool of forces allies assign for activation in crisis — under the burden-sharing direction of the 2026 National Defense Strategy and what the Department of War terms 'NATO 3.0', an initiative led by Under Secretary for Policy Elbridge Colby. 'There has been an unhealthy co-dependence in the NATO Force Model on US forces,' Grynkewich said. 'This needs to change, and it will change. The potential reality of simultaneous conflict in multiple theaters demands it.'
The reductions reported by Spiegel land in specific categories: fighter aircraft available to NATO cut by a third, fewer destroyers and no submarines offered to the crisis pool, and armed reconnaissance drawn down with Europe expected to field its own. NATO's reassurance — no gaps expected, allies 'just need to assign the capabilities they have', per spokesman Colonel Martin O'Donnell — rests on capabilities allies are projected to hold rather than forces currently assigned.
The structural read. The categories Washington is vacating — fast air, naval combatants, armed reconnaissance — are precisely those in which European shortfalls have been acknowledged and unclosed since 2022. The substitution has a deadline: the Ankara summit on 7–8 July is where the replacement contributions must be formalised, and until then the American reduction is scheduled while the European backfill is not. Großwald flagged the force-generation cut when it was first disclosed to allies in Signal No. 68; the Mons statement is its first public operationalisation, tracked in Signal No. 74.
Sources: SHAPE, US European Command, NATO, Der Spiegel.
First reported in Signal No. 68 and Signal No. 74.
