The United States has decided to bring forward the replacement of their bombs stationed in NATO bases in Europe. US officials informed NATO allies of this during a closed meeting of defense ministers in October.
According to the Politico site, which cites an American diplomatic telegram and two sources familiar with the matter, the Pentagon plans to begin in December the replacement, initially planned for the spring of 2024, of the old generation B61 bombs, stationed in six NATO bases in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey.
This program to replace B61 bombs with a more recent B61-12 version is part of a “long-planned and scheduled modernization effort in no way related to current events in Ukraine”, says a spokesman for the US Department of Defense.
Unchanged nuclear posture
This decision comes in a context of heightened tension, fueled by threats from Russia to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. As part of NATO’s nuclear sharing, the United States keeps around a hundred B61 bombs in Europe.
NATO’s nuclear deterrent is based on the so-called “double key” principle: the fighter-bombers of the host countries are likely to use the B-61s they have, the control of the latter, and therefore their code armaments, exclusively under the jurisdiction of the United States. In 2016, a program aimed at modernizing the nuclear depots located in Europe and Turkey was launched by NATO, for a total amount of 384 million dollars.
The American decision would aim to reassure some of the allies of NATO, worried about the nuclear blackmail of Vladimir Putin. At the meeting of NATO defense ministers on October 12 and 13, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also announced to the allies that the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which defines American doctrine, would maintain the declaratory nuclear policy of “calculated ambiguity” unchanged.
The use of nuclear weapons is only considered when no viable alternative exists to put an end to an existential attack against the United States, its allies or partners.
NATO annual exercise
Fourteen countries are currently taking part in NATO’s annual nuclear exercise Steadfast Noon, which ends on October 30. As in previous years, US B-52 long-range bombers are taking part in the exercise. Training flights take place over Belgium, the exercise’s host country, as well as over the North Sea and the UK, but no live weapons are used.
NATO’s new strategic concept, adopted by the Madrid summit in June, specifies that “the fundamental purpose of NATO’s nuclear capability is to preserve peace, prevent coercive action and deter aggression”.
For their part, the Russian nuclear forces conducted exercises on Wednesday, October 26, while Moscow accuses kyiv of preparing a “dirty bomb”, that is to say conventional explosives surrounded by radioactive materials.