BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO’s top military officer is weighing alternative plans to defend Europe should it come under attack from Russia, after the United States announced that it is cutting the number of aircraft and warships that it would provide in a security crisis.
The so-called NATO Force Model is Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets that commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.
But last month, the Pentagon warned its NATO allies that it would be scaling down its commitment to focus on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.
European countries and Canada had waited impatiently for over a year for the Trump administration to detail its plans after it warned that Europe is no longer a top U.S. security priority. They knew cuts were coming, but not how big, fast or what kind.
U.S. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander, said that “the United States is still committed to providing limited but critical capabilities to the alliance.”
“We need to focus on things that we can acquire quickly, that we can field quickly, and that we can scale rapidly and sustain over time, and that goes for long-range fires” as well as drones, Grynkewich said at the ILA Berlin Air Show on Thursday.
“Those sorts of things can help us mitigate the near-term risk should we find ourselves needing to deter and defend,” he added.
After allies met on June 2-3 to assess gaps left by the U.S. move, Grynkewich said that European allies and Canada should fill them by supplying manned and unmanned aircraft, and with naval vessels. It should happen “now and in the near term,” he said.
The precise nature of the cuts remains secret, but media reports in Germany and the U.S. suggest that an aircraft carrier with its support group of warships and aircraft as well as a submarine would leave the European theater. Aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets would no longer be available.
All are in short supply in Europe, and it’s unclear where they might be found in a hurry. Still, Washington wants to know how its allies intend to backfill these assets by the time President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts meet for a summit in Turkey on July 7-8.
On Friday, NATO military headquarters announced that it will cut back its security force in Kosovo by withdrawing some troops and equipment. KFOR began deploying in 1999 to keep the peace between Kosovo and Serbia.
Once composed of 50,000 personnel, KFOR has been routinely scaled back over the years as tensions eased, although 1,000 additional troops were deployed there in 2023, after fresh violence erupted.
“The current conditions provide an opportunity to optimize KFOR’s size and posture further,” Grynkewich said. His team declined to say what forces might leave and whether any Americans would go.
“It’s not about numbers, it’s about optimization, and about ensuring the safety and security of all people living in Kosovo, and more broadly the region,” his spokesman said.
The United States currently has 590 troops deployed with KFOR, second only among its 31 contributing nations to Italy, with 907 personnel. U.S. Black Hawk helicopters are also stationed at the sprawling U.S. base there, Camp Bondsteel.
In any case, Grynkewich said in Berlin that intelligence reports and Russian troop movements suggest “Russia is not looking for a conflict with NATO.” Russia is also currently bogged down in the war on Ukraine and struggling to recruit enough troops.
Governments and intelligence services in Europe have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be in a position to launch an attack elsewhere on the continent within three to five years, especially if he wins in Ukraine.
Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo, contributed to this report.
F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters of the Finnish Air Force take off from a road strip during NATO's Ramstein Flag 26 exercise in Tervo, Finland, Wednesday June 10, 2026. (Matias Honkamaa/Lehtikuva via AP)
A F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighter of the Finnish Air Force lands on a road strip during NATO's Ramstein Flag 26 exercise in Tervo, Finland, Wednesday June 10, 2026. (Matias Honkamaa/Lehtikuva via AP)
So much history is involved when the U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills, the only golf club to host this major championship in three centuries.
Scottie Scheffler will try to take his place in history when the No. 1 player goes after the final leg of the career Grand Slam. Should he win, he would be the seventh player to win all four majors and join Tiger Woods as the only players since 1960 — the modern era of the slam — to get it done on his first try.
That ordinarily would be the sole focus of the 126th U.S. Open, to be played June 18-21, except for the recent history at Shinnecock Hills.
It has not been smooth sailing off the Great Peconic Bay on Long Island.
“It's hard when you run one tournament a year — and you run it on a different golf course every year — to get it just right,” Scheffler said. “And you're trying to make it hard. I think in the U.S. Open, they push the boundaries. If they're going to continue to push the boundaries, eventually they'll screw up and then they'll dial it back.”
The 2004 U.S. Open already was brutally tough when the USGA failed to account for the strength of the warm wind. The par-3 seventh, with its Redan green, became so impossible to hold that officials had to douse it with water between groups on the final day. No one broke par, and the average score was 78.73.
Among the blistering comments came this from Jerry Kelly: “I think they’re ruining the game. They’re ruining the tournament. This isn’t golf.”
When the U.S. Open returned to this New York gem in 2018, the greens were so glassy from sun and wind the last 45 players on the tee sheet Saturday failed to break par. Phil Mickelson staged a bizarre protest by swatting a moving ball on the 13th green. Brooks Koepka saved the week by becoming the first repeat champion in 29 years.
So a return to the fabled course evokes one thought: What will go wrong this time?
“Hopefully, they get the balance right of all the different challenges, and it’s not contrived,” Adam Scott said. “These great tracks, they’ve gotten into trouble when they’ve been manipulated.”
John Bodenhamer, the USGA's chief competitions officer, was asked to take a hard look after 2018 to see what went wrong and why. The short answer was greens not properly hydrated.
The real answer comes over four days at Shinnecock Hills, the sixth time for it to host the U.S. Open, never under this much scrutiny. The early scouting report from Scheffler and Rory McIlroy was wider fairways than they are used to seeing at a U.S. Open. That wasn't a mirage.
Bodenhamer said the USGA wanted to present a course the way William Flynn designed it in 1931 when he was brought into reshape a course that first opened in 1891, the oldest golf club in America still in the same location.
That means an average fairway width of 48 yards, compared with 42 yards in 2018 and 32 yards wide last year at Oakmont. He anticipates slower green speeds to account for so many putting surfaces perched on a hill and exposed to the wind.
“The way we're thinking about this year is to let Shinnecock be Shinnecock,” Bodenhamer said.
That should be enough. In the five U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills, three players have finished the tournament under par — Raymond Floyd in 1986, Retief Goosen and runner-up Mickelson in 2004.
McIlroy said the green speeds were just over 11 on the Stimpmeter — slightly under the target speed the USGA has in mind — and the Masters champion doesn't thing they need to be much fasters.
“If they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens,” McIlroy said. “If it's set up the right way, I think it's one of the best championship tests in the country. It's an amazing golf course.”
McIlroy became the most recent player with the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in 2025. At the time, Scheffler had two green jackets but only one leg of the career slam. And then he steamrolled the competition at the PGA Championship and British Open.
“Fixed that,” Scheffler said with a laugh at the start of the year.
Now he's on the cusp of the most elite club in golf. McIlroy had to wait 11 years to get the final leg. Jack Nicklaus (1966 British Open) and Gary Player (1965 U.S. Open) each waited three years for their final pieces. Scheffler is the betting favorite, even though he hasn't won in five months.
He was runner-up in 2022 at The Country Club, his best chance. He was in the mix at Los Angeles in 2023 and on the fringe of contention at Torrey Pines.
“I like the challenge of playing a really hard golf course against a really good field,” he said.
Scott is among three players — potentially four depending on alternates — who is playing a third time at Shinnecock Hills, though he has yet to make the cut there.
He still has cause of celebration. Scott is playing in his 100th consecutive major, dating to the 2001 British Open, the second-longest streak behind Nicklaus and his incomparable run of 146 in a row.
“It's crazy," said Jordan Spieth, next in line at 52 in a row. “It's not only playing at a high level, it's take care of yourself the right way. Almost every single person you think of that could have reached 100 missed it because of injury.”
Players were due to start arriving around the weekend to prepare a major with a reputation as being the toughest test in golf. For Shinnecock, the test starts with wind on a course that more closely resembles a Scottish links than any other in America.
Flynn created a series of triangles — holes that run in that shape so players are forced to cope with different wind direction no matter which way it's blowing.
And for the players, the test can be what goes on between the ears. Nicklaus once said he could rule out most players having a chance when he hears them complain. And there's been a lot of complaining the last two times at Shinnecock Hills.
“Your acceptance meter, you've got to add some at the top end,” Xander Schauffele said. “If it's 100, you need to make it 150 because 100 is not enough. It might be the second or third hole of the day and you might have already had four bad breaks. It's really penalized. It's the most tired I am of the four majors.”
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FILE - Phil Mickelson walks around his putt on 17 during the final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on June 20, 2004, in Southampton, N.Y. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)
FILE - Golfers tee off the first hole at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Scottie Scheffler watches his tee shot from the fifth tee during the first round of the Memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
FILE - The clubhouse is seen at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File(
FILE - The U.S. Open Golf Championship trophy is displayed in front of the clubhouse at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
