The US is spending billions of dollars upgrading 150 nuclear bombs positioned in Europe, although the weapons may be useless as a obstruction and a potentially disastrous security liability, according to a new report by arms specialists.
A third of the B61 bombs in Europe under joint US and Nato control are supposed to be kept at Incirlik base in Turkey, 70 miles from the Syrian margin, which has been the matter of serious concerns.
The other B61 bombs are kept at five other positions in four countries: Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, according to the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks the weapons. The NTI report said it “should be assumed that they are targets for terrorism and theft”.
The bombs are the remnants of a much larger cold war nuclear arsenal in Europe, and critics have said they serve no military purpose, as the nuclear deterrent against Russia relies largely on the inexorable US strategic missile armory.
However, the NTI report argues they are also serious liabilities, due to the threat of terrorism or accident, and because they could become targets in the early stages of any rivalry with Russia.
“Forward-deployed US nuclear weapons in Europe increase the risk of accidents, blunders, or catastrophic terrorism and invite pre-emption. Given these added risks, it is past time to revisit whether these forward-based weapons are essential for military deterrence and political reassurance,” the Obama administration energy secretary Ernest Moniz and the former Democratic senator Sam Nunn, both NTI co-chairmen, argue in the preface to the report.
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US Wasting Billions on Nuclear Bombs – Experts
