F-35E and B61-12: one deadly system, one huge threat

From END Info 35

The new US B61-12 nuclear bombs are the product of a multi-year ‘life extension programme’ costing billions of dollars. The ‘life extension programme’ has not simply maintained the original capabilities of the B61, a megaton-yield gravity bomb, but has enhanced an developed its capabilities to the point where the B61-12’s have a ‘dialable yield’ and ‘steerability’. What these features mean is that the new bombs can be set to a lower yield and can be dropped from aircraft some distance from any target.

The ‘lower yield’ - still in excess of the power of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki - are considered as ‘useable’ battlefield weapons by some military figures. The ‘steerability’ of the new bombs, made possible by a sophisticated tail fin design, implies that they could fulfill the function of a ‘first strike’ weapon.

The development of the B61-12 went hand-in-hand with the development of the F-35E nuclear capable jets. They were designed together as a deployable nuclear system.

As we now know, the United States is spending large sums of money to ‘upgrade’ nuclear storage facilities at sites in England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey. The addition of Lakenheath to the list of US nuclear weapons sites in Europe indicates an expansion of the US ‘nuclear bootprint’ in Europe. But expansion operates in more than a geographical sense.

The F-35E/B61-12 system and its combined features represent an intensification of nuclear risk. The combined capabilities of the system, the ‘usability’ of the bombs and the utility of the aircraft imply a reduction in the threshold for nuclear use. This is an especially dangerous combination given the destruction of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the growing nuclear threats that developed from this point onwards, to the acute nuclear tensions we now witness.

Throwing this new nuclear system into Europe - a process already underway - can only lead to increased tensions that will surely demand a response from those targeted by such weapons. A Russian Foreign Affairs spokesperson warned as much in October 2022.

Such systems cannot ensure security in Europe. Europe will not be ‘defended’ by such weapons. The F-33E/B61-12 system is a weapon of offence. The presence of such weapons in Europe can only bring heightened risk and danger to the continent.