June 18 (UPI) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that U.S. forces in NATO-ally countries would be subject to a review by the Pentagon as part of a “NATO 3.0” reboot of the 77-year-old defense pact into a military alliance capable of seeing off any threat.

Speaking after attending a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Hegseth said that given “some allies didn’t provide the kind of support they should have” during the war with Iran, the United States needed to take another look at arrangements with European allies and how its military assets were apportioned.

“If we’re honest in public, honest in private about it, we need to be able to ensure we have access basing and overflight when it matters, in the middle of a contingency,” Hegseth told reporters.

“So the review we’re undertaking, the NATO 3.0 review, is simply that: Where is the right place for bases, where can we make sure we have access and overflight when we need it so that America is properly postured on the continent and around the world.”

However, Hegseth stressed that it would be an earnest review that would be undertaken working “with Congress, our allies and General [Alexus] Grynkewich, Commander of European Command, and our policy shop,” beginning immediately upon his return to Washington.

Asked whether countries that had denied permission for the U.S. military aircraft to overfly their territory had felt the impact of what had taken place at the NATO meeting earlier Hegseth said he was certain they had.

“We were clear publicly and privately, we’re not going to allow free-loading anymore, excuses don’t count anymore. Our NATO dues are contingent on other countries stepping up. It’s not a one-way street.

He added that it was not as if it was a new message from himself or U.S. President Donald Trump and that was why most countries were responding positively with country after country confirming they were going to meet their [defense spending] target.

“There are still few outliers and we will be clear with them and as we do this review we will change how we view the continent as a result,” said Hegseth.

At the meeting with his NATO-country counterparts, Hegseth said the review was aimed at overhauling the 32 member-country defense umbrella to become a European-led alliance.

“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” he said.

NATO 3.0 was, Hegseth explained, the understanding that, post-Cold War, NATO needed to revert back to a military alliance with real military capabilities capable of deterring threats to Europe and taking the lead for the conventional defense of the continent.

He strongly criticized European allies’ “shameful” refusal to permit access to bases, and airspace in some cases, for offensive operations during U.S. forces’ five-and-a-half-week-long military offensive against Iran earlier this year.

“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,” said Hegseth.

Ahead of the meeting he said they must take the lead on their own defense and help recast NATO into “a real hardline military alliance.”

Hegseth also held up the example of the $1.5 trillion defense budget being sought by Trump for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 as a “message to the world,” saying it was critical not only to the United States’ military power and reach, but also “building the arsenal of freedom that first and foremost protects America and American interests but also backstops the strength of NATO and our allies.”

The review follows almost continuous pressure from Trump since coming into office in January 2025 on European NATO members to up their defense spending because the United States’ would be scaling back its role in the alliance amid a strategic pivot toward China and the Indo-Pacific region.

That culminated in the majority of members committing at the NATO Summit in The Hague in June 2025 to spending 5% of GDP annually on their core defense and wider defense and security by 2035.