War in Ukraine: US may store powerful new nuclear warheads in England

As the war in Ukraine approaches the two-year mark and, despite difficulties on the ground, Russia poses a growing threat, the US is considering stationing nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in fifteen years, The Telegraph reports.

According to Pentagon documents accessed by the British newspaper, warheads three times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima will be stored at the Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath, Suffolk, where a squadron of US Air Force fighters is already stationed. The project is part of a NATO program aimed at developing and modernizing nuclear facilities amid growing tensions with the Kremlin.

Moscow did not fail to respond: “In the context of the transition of the United States and NATO to an openly confrontational path aimed at inflicting strategic defeat on Russia, this practice and its development force us to take compensatory countermeasures to reliably protect security.” interests of our country and its allies,” thundered the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

Nuclear missiles were decommissioned in 2008.

The United States previously stationed nuclear missiles at Lakenheath, 80 miles northeast of London, and removed them in 2008 after the Cold War threat from Moscow receded. Pentagon documents reviewed by the newspaper reveal contracts to purchase a new facility at the airbase that will house B61-12 gravity bombs, each with a yield of 50 kilotons. “Baby”, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, had a yield of 15 kilotons. The purchase contracts include ballistic shields as well as housing for U.S. soldiers at the base, which will begin construction in June.

A UK Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “It is long-standing UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons in any particular location.” The Pentagon, for its part, confirmed that the documents are not a “forecast report.”

Britain urged to ‘reassess’ the size of its armed forces

In recent weeks, there have been voices on both sides of the Atlantic calling on the United Kingdom to prepare for a possible war between NATO forces and Russia. General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British army, said the army’s 74,000 soldiers must be strengthened by recruiting at least 45,000 reservists ready for conflict. In response, the Prime Minister’s Office ruled out conscription, saying military service would remain voluntary. And Carlos Del Toro, the US Navy secretary, called on Britain to “re-evaluate” the size of its armed forces in light of “the threats that exist today.”

Last week, the Transatlantic Alliance announced it would hold its largest military exercise since Reforger in 1988 while the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West continued. Operation Steadfast Defender, scheduled to begin in February, will involve a Russian attack on allied territory. It is expected that about 90 thousand soldiers, 50 warships, 80 aircraft and 1,100 combat vehicles will take part in it.