BERLIN — Germany aims to rely less on the U.S. and more on Europe to deter the growing Russian threat, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius spelled out Wednesday when announcing the country’s new military strategy.

“We are developing the Bundeswehr into the strongest conventional army in Europe. In the short term, we are increasing our defense and resilience, in the medium term we are aiming for a significant increase in overarching capabilities and in the long term we will establish technological superiority,” announced Pistorius.

While stressing that the United States remains indispensable to NATO, the strategy notes that Washington is increasingly oriented toward the Indo-Pacific.

With that, Germany is expected to assume greater responsibility within NATO, not only by meeting capability targets — the goals the alliance spells out for its members — but also by playing a central role in defending the continent and enabling allied operations.

“The Bundeswehr military strategy answers the fundamental question of how Germany deters within the alliance and, if absolutely necessary, wages war in defense,” said the document.

Pistorius framed the strategy as a response to a worsening threat environment shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing global instability. “We must be able to defend ourselves,” he said, describing the overhaul as a break with decades of peacetime assumptions.

“Russia is creating the conditions for a military attack on NATO states,” said the strategy.

The document marks the culmination of a multiyear shift in German defense policy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, transitioning the political will to rearm into a concrete military doctrine.

That shift included a €100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr, reforms to loosen the constitutional debt brake for defense spending, accelerated procurement reforms, and a renewed military service system to expand troop numbers and reserves.

The rethink of German defense policy centers on a phased buildup of military power stretching into the next decade.

In the first phase, through 2029, the focus is on “rapidly maximizing” readiness and endurance — essentially preparing the Bundeswehr to fight and sustain operations at short notice.

The second phase, running to 2035, centers on a structured expansion of capabilities across all domains, aligned with NATO targets.

The final phase, extending toward 2039, aims to transform the Bundeswehr into a technologically advanced military built around innovation and future capabilities.

Alongside this buildup, the strategy marks a doctrinal shift away from rigid force structures toward a more flexible approach. Instead of defining the military by numbers of tanks or aircraft, planners are instructed to focus on the “effects” the Bundeswehr must deliver — from long-range strike to air and missile defense.

The plan also calls for a major personnel expansion, targeting a force of at least 460,000 active and non-active troops. Currently, there around 185,000 active-duty soldiers in the Bundeswehr. The reserve itself is to be elevated to a central pillar of national defense, reflecting Germany’s role as a logistical hub in any future European conflict.

Pressed on whether the strategy accounts for a potential reduction of U.S. engagement in Europe under President Donald Trump, Pistorius declined to go into detail but acknowledged that such scenarios are being considered.

NATO, he said, must become “more European” to remain transatlantic, stating that burden sharing between the European pillar and the U.S. ensures balance and strength within the alliance.