WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The administration that has spent the year telling Europe to stop free-riding on American protection is preparing to remove a third of the fighter jets it commits to the continent's defense, a withdrawal that exposes the contradiction at the center of its NATO policy: Washington wants Europe both more responsible for its own security and more dependent on a guarantor that is walking away.

The Pentagon intends to reduce the F-16 and F-15E fighter jets it makes available to NATO in Europe from roughly 150 to 100, cut maritime reconnaissance aircraft from 26 to 15, and withdraw all eight aerial refueling tankers from the continent, the New York Times reported on Friday. The plan also redeploys a missile-armed submarin...