Germany scrambles to accelerate rearmament after Trump pulls troops and cancels a missile deployment
Germany is racing to speed up its military buildup after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of 5,000 of the 35,000-plus US troops based there and cancelled a planned long-range missile deployment -- retaliation for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's apparent criticism of the US over the Iran war. Berlin, which has pledged hundreds of billions of euros to build Europe's strongest conventional army, must lift its forces from about 186,000 toward a target of 260,000 active troops plus 200,000 reservists, and is pressing Washington to sell Tomahawk cruise missiles to offset its lack of deep-strike weapons against Russian Iskanders in Kaliningrad. European partners remain wary of a militarily dominant Germany, even as talk grows of a 'coalition of the willing' with France, Italy, Poland and the UK.
Germany is scrambling to accelerate its rearmament after a rupture with Washington. Last month, at an event in his home Sauerland region, Chancellor Friedrich Merz went off-script to criticise the United States over its failure in the Iran war -- which Germany had effectively facilitated through the US Ramstein Air Base. Trump retaliated by ordering the withdrawal of 5,000 of the more than 35,000 US troops based in Germany and cancelling a planned deployment of the long-range missiles Berlin says it needs to deter Russia.
Merz has committed hundreds of billions of euros to build what is meant to become Europe's strongest conventional army, and has vowed to meet new NATO targets years ahead of Britain and France -- despite opposition from war-weary Germans. But the numbers are hard: under its updated strategy Germany must reach 260,000 active personnel and 200,000 reservists, yet its force still stands at about 186,000, short even of the earlier goal of just over 200,000.
The bigger gap is firepower. Since Russia stationed Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad exclave -- within range of Berlin -- Germany has felt exposed, and it lacks long-range strike weapons of its own. Berlin has offered to buy US Tomahawk cruise missiles at a premium, and the German defence minister hopes to travel to Washington to make the case, though only if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth agrees to meet; no meeting has been set, and the US may have little to spare after expending Tomahawks in the Iran war. Rafael Loss of the European Council on Foreign Relations urged Europeans to pair existing cruise missiles such as Storm Shadow and Taurus with range-extension boosters to reach targets deep inside Russia.
The hardest task may be political. France and Poland remain wary that a rearmed Germany could become a local hegemon rather than a remedy for over-dependence on Washington; a mooted "coalition of the willing" grouping Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the UK would likely require Berlin to share industrial secrets and make its equipment interoperable. The historian Timothy Garton Ash asked whether Europe would build "a genuinely integrated European defence industry or still just rival national ones." US intentions, meanwhile, stayed unclear: NATO's American commander promised a gradual, structured drawdown, but Trump then said a new US brigade would deploy to Poland imminently, implying matching cuts in Germany. As NATO chief Mark Rutte put it, "We know that adjustments will take place. The US has to pivot more toward, for example, Asia."