Germany promises to be Europe’s defense backbone amid NATO shifts

This is the sixth part of a series examining the challenges facing the NATO alliance.

Germany is committed to being the strongest military force within NATO, and Berlin’s ambassador to Washington told Fox News Digital that the country is ready to take on the biggest responsibility for European security after decades when the United States carried the biggest military responsibility for the alliance.

“Germany is rising – we heard the call!” German Ambassador to the United States Jens Hanefeld told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the German army should be the most powerful army in Europe, a goal Hanefeld said is now supported by Berlin’s new military strategy.

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“Russia’s war of illegal violence has shaken the old certainties in Europe and Germany as the international rules we relied on are being challenged,” said Hanefeld. “This changes the strategic landscape in which we work.”

“Today, Germany is the biggest supporter of Ukraine,” Hanefeld said in written responses. “Germany’s decision to become a strong European force, focused on the NATO alliance, is an ongoing commitment.”

The historic German military revolution

The change marks a historic shift for the country’s post-war military which was built on self-restraint.

After World War II, West Germany was allowed to rearm within the framework of the Western alliance, joining NATO in 1955 and creating the Bundeswehr as a force embedded in collective defense rather than an independent German force. In the decades after reunification, Germany has relied heavily on America’s security umbrella and has often lagged behind NATO spending targets, fueling repeated American complaints that Europe’s largest economy is not pulling its weight.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced Berlin to start rethinking the situation. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the change “Zeitenwende,” or turning point. Merz now wants to turn that sentence into a long-term military buildup.

In Germany, Hanefeld said, the changes taking place are often described as “Zeitenwende,” but he acknowledged that change does not come easily given the country’s history.

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Howitzer ammunition is displayed during a NATO training exercise at a German military base in Munster, Germany, on May 10, 2022, involving about 7,500 soldiers from nine nations. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters)

The Trump-Merz rift complicates NATO politics

The effort unfolded after a public spat between President Donald Trump and Merz, a dispute that a US defense expert warned could complicate critical decisions on deterring Russia.

Tensions flared after Merz criticized Washington’s handling of the Iran war, said the United States was being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership in negotiations and questioned Trump’s exit strategy. Trump responded by accusing Merz of being soft on Iran’s nuclear program, even though Merz said Iran must not get a nuclear weapon.

The dispute soon spread to NATO politics. Trump later threatened to review the reduction of US troops in Germany and said that Merz should spend more time ending the war in Ukraine and “fixing his broken country” than commenting on Iran.

Then Merz added another offensive element. Speaking to a young audience in Germany, he said he would not advise his children to live, study or work in the United States “today,” citing America’s changing social climate, while saying he remains “very fond of America,” but “My interest is not growing at the moment.

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President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2026, to discuss issues including the recent US and Israeli strikes on Iran. (Wina McNamee/Getty Images)

Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a senior official at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former head of the US European Command, told Fox News Digital that Merz was wrong to speak that way about Trump at a time when Germany needed Washington’s support.

“Talking trash about the president in a meeting with school kids in Germany is not smart, especially a president as popular as President Trump,” Montgomery said. “Germany is not a big country in this relationship, the United States is a country, and Merz needed to show good behavior as a national leader.”

Montgomery said those tensions risked derailing tough security decisions, including the possibility of a long-term strike in Germany.

He criticized a recent US move to delay or possibly cancel the rotational deployment of long-range strike systems to Germany, which he said would have included Tomahawk, SM-6 or Precision Strike Missile capabilities. Reuters reported in May that Germany’s Defense Ministry said there was no “absolute cancellation” of the deployment.

“Both of these are bad decisions by our Department of Defense,” Montgomery said. “These are the most important weapons systems to deter Russia.”

He said the aim is not to fight Russia in Poland, the Baltics or the Suwałki Gap, but to prevent Moscow from attacking in the first place.

“And those long-range strike weapons are a big part of that. And I’m very disappointed in our Department of Defense,” Montgomery said.

A source with knowledge of the matter said that while there have been hints about a possible decline in US involvement, the US-German defense relationship remains strong and cooperation remains close.

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U.S. Army soldiers carry simulated casualties in a MEDEVAC vehicle during NATO’s Sword 26 exercise, which explores new ways to evacuate the battlefield using drones and AI-assisted medical technology in Bemowo Piskie, Poland, May 11, 2026. (Kuba Stezycki/Reuters)

Europe’s future defense industrial base

“Germany is developing a large, impressive defense industrial base that is good for NATO, good for Western security, and very good for our affairs,” said Montgomery, arguing that Germany, not Poland, France or the United Kingdom, is likely to be the “beating heart” of Europe’s future defense industrial base.

Germany has long been a US military base in Europe. Hanefeld pointed to the Ramstein Air Base, the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the Grafenwöhr training facility as examples of Germany’s continued importance in projecting American power and deterring NATO.

“These facilities serve the security of the U.S. homeland and the U.S. military and enhance NATO’s ability to deter and defend,” he said. “I am confident: NATO will always cross the Atlantic, but it will be more European in the next decade.”

At the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, allies agreed to invest 5% of GDP annually in defense and defense-related spending by 2035, including core military spending and broader security investments. Merz said at the time that the decision was aimed at protecting “freedom, security and prosperity,” according to the German government.

Hanefeld said Germany was already moving to meet that target, saying Berlin would increase defense spending to 5% of GDP “at the earliest” by 2035 and recruit nearly 100,000 active-duty soldiers to the Bundeswehr.

He also lashed out at American critics who say Germany and other European allies have not shouldered their share of the defense burden. Hanefeld said Germany has signed more than 380 contracts worth more than $33 billion with US defense companies for the purchase and production of fighter jets, transport helicopters, air defense systems and ammunition.

“It is a down payment for the future of the transatlantic and our political commitment to remove the burden of deterrence and defense from Europe,” Hanefeld said.

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September 24, 2025; Augusta, Georgia, USA; HE Jens Hanefeld, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the US, speaks during the first Aurubis meltdown event at Aurubis Richmond. Aurubis is a metal recycling plant. (Katie Goodale – Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Defending NATO’s eastern flank

One of Germany’s most visible commitments is its permanent army in Lithuania, which is expected to include about 5,000 German soldiers and civilian personnel. The Bundeswehr says the force is intended to be fully operational in protecting NATO’s eastern flank in the Baltic region within three years.

Hanefeld called the brigade one of Germany’s “signature efforts” to assure its Baltic allies that NATO will “protect every inch of the allied territories.”

In Germany, change is not just about money. It is a political and cultural break with decades of warnings about military power. In the United States, it is also a test of whether the alliance that was once criticized by Trump and other American leaders for using less money can now be the backbone of Europe that Washington wants.

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NATO peacekeeping mission KFOR marks its 20th anniversary during a ceremony in Pristina. (Laura Hasani/Reuters)

Hanefeld said that is where Berlin intends to go.

“NATO will remain transatlantic at its core,” he said, “but it will become more European in the next decade.”