The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from NATO ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, following a public spat over the war in Iran between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The move is the most concrete announcement made so far by the U.S. government to reduce its military presence in Europe, following months of complaints from Washington that the region wasn't doing enough to support the Americans in Iran and take care of its own security.
The United States had approximately 68,000 active-duty military personnel assigned permanently in its overseas bases in Europe as of December 2025, data from the U.S. Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) shows. This number does not include the troops arriving in Europe on rotation. The American military is spread over 31 permanent bases and a further 19 military sites to which the Department of Defense has access as of March 2024, as per the Congress report.
The U.S. troops are stationed in more than a dozen European countries, with the biggest presence of personnel in - respectively - Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. According to DMDC data, as of December 2025, close to 36,500 active American service members were stationed in Germany, divided into five garrisons. This number is three times bigger than the second-in-line Italy - and the largest U.S. base in Europe is the air base near the German city of Ramstein, where troops have been stationed since 1952.
Military experts find the move perplexing, and following the announcement a number of them pointed out that it's the U.S. who needs Germany more right now, rather than the other way round. That is because, as ABC reported basing on 2026 reports, the strategic reliance of the United States on German infrastructure is intense. As DW.com pointed out - Ramstein Air Base is considered the cornerstone of U.S. logistics and command for operations in the Middle East and Africa, functioning as the headquarters for U.S. Air Forces in Europe. As of March 2026, it is specifically described as the central command hub for all U.S. activity in Iran, including drone feeds and airlift operations.
Poland hosts 369 permanently assigned active-duty U.S. service members, as well as about 10,000 personnel of rotational forces funded through the European Deterrence Initiative.
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Source: Reuters, DW.com, ABC News, PAP, IAR