NewsRescue
According to Pentagon budget documents studied by a US think group and British media, the US may want to put nuclear weapons on British territory for the first time since 2008. According to the files, American fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing attacks are also earmarked for the same UK air base.
According to the Telegraph, the US military requested $50 million in financing from Congress in March for a new “surety dormitory” at the Lakenheath Royal Air Force facility in Suffolk, north of London.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, the Pentagon regularly uses the term “surety” to refer to “the capability of keeping nuclear weapons safe, secure, and under positive control.”
RAF Lakenheath was one of three British installations that housed US nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and it had 110 American warheads until a drawdown in 2008. Washington also supplied atomic bombs to UK soldiers under an initiative known as ‘Project E’ until 1992, just after the Soviet Union’s demise.
According to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of the UK-NATO Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Regiment, the new assurance facility will most certainly house nuclear weapons.
“A surety dormitory is a bunker used to house nuclear missiles and warheads in this case.” “It needs to be hardened and secure so that if the Russians drop a bomb on them, it won’t cause a nuclear accident,” he said.
According to the blueprints, construction on the dormitory would begin next summer and end in early 2026.
According to the same Pentagon budget request, Washington intends to station two squadrons of F-35 A fighter jets capable of tactical nuclear bombing missions at RAF Lakenheath. Unnamed British military officials told the Telegraph that 54 F-35s will replace outdated US F-15s at the site in the coming months.
The idea of a new nuclear deployment in the UK has alarmed some critics, with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament calling the plan “beyond irresponsible.”
“The deployment of the new B61-12 (gravity bombs) to Europe undermines any prospects for global peace and ensures that Britain will be a target in a nuclear conflict between the US/NATO and Russia,” said Kate Hudson, the campaign’s general secretary. She went on to say, “It’s becoming increasingly clear that Lakenheath is once again a vital cog in Washington’s overseas nuclear machine.”
During a recent briefing, when asked about the likelihood of nuclear weapons returning to the site, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh stated that it was US policy to “neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at the base.”