Germany pledges to build Europe's strongest army as NATO allies answer Trump pressure

This is portion six of a bid examining nan challenges confronting nan NATO alliance.

Germany is pledging to go a much powerful subject unit wrong NATO, pinch Berlin’s ambassador to Washington telling Fox News Digital that nan state is fresh to presume greater work for European information aft decades successful which nan United States carried overmuch of nan alliance’s subject burden.

"Germany is stepping up — we heard nan call!" German Ambassador to nan United States Jens Hanefeld told Fox News Digital successful an exclusive interview.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Germany’s equipped forces should go nan strongest accepted service successful Europe, a extremity Hanefeld said is now backed by Berlin’s caller subject strategy.

UK, GERMAN DEFENSE OFFICIALS DEFEND MILITARY BUILDUP UNDER RUSSIAN THREATS

Germany is pledging to go a much powerful subject unit wrong NATO, pinch Berlin’s ambassador to Washington telling Fox News Digital that nan state is fresh to presume greater work for European security.  (Kira Hofmann/Photothek via Getty Images)

"Russia’s forbidden warfare of aggression has shaken aged certainties successful Europe and Germany arsenic nan world rules we person relied connected are being challenged," Hanefeld said. "This changes nan strategical situation we run in."

"Today, Germany is Ukraine’s largest supporter," Hanefeld said successful written answers. "Germany’s determination to go Europe’s strongest accepted army, good anchored successful nan NATO alliance, is an ongoing commitment."

Germany’s historical subject shift

The displacement marks a historical move for a state whose postwar subject personality was built astir restraint. 

After World War II, West Germany was allowed to rearm only wrong a Western confederation framework, joining NATO successful 1955 and building nan Bundeswehr arsenic a unit embedded successful corporate defense alternatively than independent German power. For decades aft reunification, Germany relied heavy connected nan U.S. information umbrella and often lagged down NATO spending targets, feeding repeated American complaints that Europe’s largest system was not pulling its weight.

Russia’s full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022 forced Berlin to statesman rethinking that posture. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz called nan displacement a "Zeitenwende," aliases turning point. Merz is now seeking to move that building into a semipermanent subject buildup.

In Germany, Hanefeld said, nan changes underway are often described arsenic a "Zeitenwende," but he acknowledged that nan translator does not travel easy fixed nan country’s history.

GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS MILITARY DRAFT COULD RETURN IF VOLUNTEER NUMBERS FALL SHORT

Ammunition for a howitzer is displayed during NATO training astatine a German service guidelines successful Munster, Germany, connected May 10, 2022, involving up to 7,500 soldiers from 9 nations. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters)

Trump–Merz tensions complicate NATO politics

The effort is unfolding against a backdrop of nationalist clash betwixt President Donald Trump and Merz, a conflict that a U.S. defense master warned could complicate captious decisions connected deterring Russia.

The hostility escalated aft Merz criticized Washington’s handling of nan Iran war, saying nan United States was being "humiliated" by Iran’s activity successful negotiations and questioning nan Trump administration’s exit strategy. Trump fired backmost by accusing Merz of being soft connected Iran’s atomic program, moreover though Merz has said Iran must not get a atomic weapon.

The conflict quickly spilled into NATO politics. Trump later threatened to reappraisal imaginable U.S. unit reductions successful Germany and said Merz should walk much clip ending nan warfare successful Ukraine and "fixing his surgery country" than commenting connected Iran.

Then Merz added different irritant. Speaking to a young assemblage successful Germany, he said he would not counsel his children to live, study aliases activity successful nan United States "today," citing America’s changing societal climate, while besides saying he remained "a awesome admirer of America," but "My admiration isn’t increasing astatine nan moment."

GERMANY'S MERZ TO 'ADAPT' TO TRUMP DURING HIGH-STAKES MEETING ON TARIFFS, DEFENSE

President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met successful nan Oval Office astatine nan White House successful Washington, D.C., connected March 3, 2026, to talk issues including caller U.S. and Israeli strikes connected Iran. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a elder chap astatine nan Foundation for Defense of Democracies and erstwhile U.S. European Command official, told Fox News Digital that Merz was incorrect to speak that measurement astir Trump astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile Germany needs Washington’s support. 

"Talking trash astir nan president astatine a gathering pinch schoolhouse kids successful Germany is not master diplomacy, and particularly a president who is well-known to beryllium prickly arsenic President Trump," Montgomery said. "Germany is not nan large state successful this relationship, nan United States is, and Merz needed to show much subject arsenic a nationalist leader." 

Montgomery said those tensions consequence affecting difficult information decisions, including long-range onslaught capabilities successful Germany.

He criticized caller U.S. moves to hold aliases perchance cancel a rotational deployment of long-range onslaught systems to Germany, which he said would person included Tomahawk, SM-6 aliases Precision Strike Missile capabilities. Reuters reported successful May that Germany’s defense ministry said location had been nary "definitive cancellation" of nan deployment.

"Both of these are bad decisions being made by our Department of Defense," Montgomery said. "These are weapons systems that are incredibly important to deterring Russia."

He said nan extremity is not to conflict Russia successful Poland, nan Baltics aliases nan Suwałki Gap, but to forestall Moscow from attacking successful nan first place.

"And those long-range onslaught weapons are a large portion of that. And I’m very disappointed successful our Department of Defense," Montgomery said.

A root pinch knowledge of nan matter said that contempt briefings astir imaginable decreases successful U.S. involvement, nan U.S.–Germany defense narration remains beardown and practice remains close.

'PUTIN IS PUSHING THE LIMITS’: EASTERN ALLIES WARN TRUMP NOT TO PULL US TROOPS

U.S. Army soldiers transportation a simulated casualty into a MEDEVAC conveyance during NATO's Sword 26 exercise, which tests caller battlefield removal methods utilizing drones and AI-assisted aesculapian exertion successful Bemowo Piskie, Poland, May 11, 2026. (Kuba Stezycki/Reuters)

Europe’s early defense business base

"Germany processing a large, awesome defense business guidelines is bully for NATO, it’s bully for Western security, and it’s moreover bully for our primes," Montgomery said, arguing that Germany, not Poland, France aliases nan United Kingdom, is astir apt to go nan "beating heart" of Europe’s early defense business base.

Germany has agelong been cardinal to nan U.S. subject beingness successful Europe. Hanefeld pointed to Ramstein Air Base, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and nan training area successful Grafenwöhr arsenic examples of Germany’s continuing value to American powerfulness projection and NATO deterrence.

"These accommodation service U.S. national security interests and U.S. subject unit and further NATO’s expertise to deter and defend," he said. "I americium confident: NATO will stay transatlantic astatine its core, but will go much European complete nan adjacent decade."

At nan 2025 NATO acme successful The Hague, friends agreed to put 5% of GDP annually successful defense and defense-related spending by 2035, including halfway military spending and broader information investments. Merz said astatine nan clip that nan determination was meant to safeguard "freedom, information and prosperity," according to nan German government.

Hanefeld said Germany is already moving to meet that standard, saying Berlin will summation defense spending to 5% of GDP "well before" 2035 and recruit almost 100,000 new active-duty soldiers into nan Bundeswehr.

He besides pushed backmost against U.S. critics who reason that Germany and different European friends are still not carrying their adjacent share of nan defense burden. Hanefeld said Germany has signed much than 380 contracts worthy much than $33 cardinal pinch U.S. defense companies to procure and manufacture combatant jets, carrier helicopters, aerial defense systems and ammunition.

"It’s a down costs connected nan transatlantic early and connected our governmental committedness to shift nan load for deterrence and defense to Europe," Hanefeld said.

TRUMP PUSHED NATO TO SPEND BIG — NOW COMES THE HARDER QUESTION: CAN EUROPE ACTUALLY FIGHT?

Sept 24, 2025; Augusta, Georgia, USA; H.E. Jens Hanefeld, Ambassador of nan Federal Republic of Germany to nan U.S., speaks during nan Aurubis first melt ceremonial astatine Aurubis Richmond. Aurubis is simply a metallic recycling plant. (Katie Goodale - Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Defending NATO’s eastbound flank

One of Germany’s astir visible commitments is its imperishable brigade successful Lithuania, expected to see astir 5,000 German subject and civilian personnel. The Bundeswehr says nan unit is intended to go afloat operational for nan defense of NATO’s eastern flank successful nan Baltic region wrong 3 years.

Hanefeld called nan brigade 1 of Germany’s "signature efforts" to reassure Baltic friends that NATO "will take sides each inch of allied territory."

For Germany, nan alteration is not only astir money. It is simply a governmental and taste break pinch decades of be aware astir subject power. For nan United States, it is besides a trial of whether nan state agelong criticized by Trump and different U.S. leaders for underspending tin now go nan European backbone Washington has demanded.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

NATO peacekeeping ngo KFOR marks its 20th day during a ceremonial successful Pristina. (Laura Hasani/Reuters)

Hanefeld said that is precisely wherever Berlin intends to go.

"NATO will stay transatlantic astatine its core," he said, "but will go much European complete nan adjacent decade."