For the first time since 2008, the United States will be deploying nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom, government documents cited by the BBC appeared to show.
The documents include several contracts that have been awarded for facilities improvements at Royal Air Force base Lakenheath, including troop shelters needed for the base’s “upcoming nuclear mission,” the outlet reported.
The base was previously home to a nuclear arsenal of unknown size, but those weapons were removed from the U.K. in 2008, amid decreased tensions between Russia and NATO following the end of the Cold War.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine nearing its two-year anniversary, those tensions have been on the rise again.
The U.S. Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing is stationed at RAF Lakenheath, the BBC noted. The unit flies both the F-15E Eagle and the F-35A Lighting II fighter aircraft.
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That’s an important detail, because the F-35A has been “flight tested to use the latest variant of the B61-12 thermonuclear bomb,” according to the BBC. The bomb was also tested on the F-15E during its initial development, according to an Airforce-technology.com article from 2020.
According to the BBC, the B61-12 is capable of a 340 kiloton yield (“Little Boy,” the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, exploded with an energy equivalent to roughly 15 kilotons), but can be deployed with much smaller yields.
Other contracts awarded by the federal government included one for a “Surety Dormitory” at RAF Lakenheath, “surety” being a term used by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy to refer to the protection of nuclear weapons, and one for “hardened ballistic security shelters” with bulletproof glass capable of stopping a .30-caliber rifle bullet, the outlet reported.
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Some protested the return of American nuclear weapons to Britain, of course.
“These documents highlight plainly that an ‘upcoming nuclear mission’ will be stationed at RAF Lakenheath — confirming what we have strongly suspected since November 2022 — that US nuclear weapons are returning to Britain,” the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s general secretary, Kate Hudson, told the BBC.
“It’s shameful that both the US and UK governments continue to take the public for fools on this serious matter — refusing to give us crucial information about our security,” she said, adding that the deployment of the weapons escalated tensions and “made us a nuclear target” — although it seems likely that the joint U.S.-U.K. base would have been a nuclear target with or without the presence of nuclear weapons there.
The U.K.’s Ministry of Defense would not comment on the possible deployment of the weapons to RAF Lakenheath, citing “longstanding” NATO agreements.
The U.S. Air Force did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Last week, the outgoing head of the British army, Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders, called for expanding the army with 45,000 reservists to bring its total number up to almost 120,000 personnel, due to the possibility of a more general European conflict, The Guardian reported.
U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro expressed similar sentiments, warning the U.K. of the potential danger from “the threats that exist today.”
Officials have said that the U.K. has no plans to initiate a draft, however, and that the armed services will continue to be staffed by voluntary enlistees.
RAF Lakenheath is home to more than 4,000 servicemen and women and is the largest U.S. Air Force-operated base in England, according to its website.
