More than 1,000 US troops and their armored vehicles have begun leaving Lithuania at the end of their rotation, with no replacement unit yet on the ground — the most concrete eastern-flank consequence to date of the Trump administration's force-posture review in Europe.
The departing contingent consists of two battalions of the Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division, which arrived in October 2025 with Abrams main battle tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and Paladin self-propelled howitzers, Lithuania's defense ministry told Military Times. Several Lithuanian officials confirmed the withdrawal on condition of anonymity to LRT.
"Under review"
Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas told reporters in Vilnius on 2 June that the next rotation is "currently under review … because the number of (US troops) in Europe is changing." Washington has assured Vilnius that a replacement force will arrive, he added, "but when exactly, and with which capabilities, and at what size — this is due to be announced." Deividas Matulionis, the presidential national security adviser, described the lapse as logistically "natural" while saying Lithuania had received "a very clear assurance from the Americans that the troops were and will remain."
First gap since 2020
US battalion-sized rotations in Lithuania began in 2019 and were upgraded after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine into a continuous deployment of around 1,000 troops with armor. The impending lapse means Lithuania could, for the first time since 2020, be left without a permanently rotating US armored unit on its soil, Cyprus Mail reported.
Wider US posture shifts
The Lithuania pause sits inside a broader European drawdown. The United States is withdrawing thousands of troops from Germany and Poland, Reuters reports, as the rift between the Trump White House and European NATO capitals over the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran — which began on 28 February 2026 — widens. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio used the 22 May NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Helsingborg to restate the administration's irritation that allies had not joined the Iran campaign.
Lithuania's own track
Vilnius has accelerated its own defense build-up across the same period. Lithuania has tripled its defense spending since 2022 and is set to spend 5.4% of GDP on defense in 2026, among the highest shares in the alliance. Kaunas said US officials "see our investment" and described the Baltic region as "of critical importance to NATO and the United States."
Lithuania has also been on the front line of recent regional tensions. NATO Baltic Air Policing jets scrambled and closed Vilnius airport on 20 May after a drone was tracked from Belarus. On 31 May, Lithuania became the first NATO state to sign a defense-technologies and unmanned-systems agreement with Ukraine, covering joint production of interceptor and naval drones.
