BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced that allied nations will replace United States military assets withdrawn from NATO crisis response allocations. These withdrawn assets are valued at approximately $40 billion to $50 billion.

The U.S. reduced its brigade combat teams in Europe from four to three. This reduction included the withdrawal of one-third of U.S. F-15 and F-15E fighter jets, half of MQ-4 and MQ-9 Reaper drones, half of strategic bombers and aircraft carriers, and nearly half of maritime patrol aircraft and destroyers from the European theater.

Rutte said, "When it comes to the capabilities the United States will no longer pledge, there are largely capabilities available that other Allies already have, or will have in the near future."

He said, "And we have already seen that, as the United States has adjusted its pledged contributions, other Allies have stepped up to contribute more – in some cases completely, in some cases nearly."

Wilson Beaver, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Heritage Foundation, commented on Europe's capacity to compensate for these reductions. Beaver said, "European allied governments should, for the most part, be able to backfill the American reduction in commitments, meaning that NATO planning should only require addendums to the plans and not a rewrite of the plans."

Alexus Grynkewich said, "There has been an unhealthy co-dependence in the NATO Force Model on U.S. forces." He said, "President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and others have been clear that this needs to change, and it will change." He added, "The potential reality of simultaneous conflict in multiple theaters demands it."