US accelerates B61 deployment
From END Info 34 DOWNLOAD
On 26 October, 2022, the Politico news website announced that the “United States has accelerated the fielding of a more accurate version of the mainstay nuclear bomb to NATO bases in Europe, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable and two people familiar with the issue.”
As we reported in END Info 32 (June/July 2022), plans for the deployment of these upgraded bombs have been underway for some time. In the context of US plans to expand its nuclear bootprint in Europe, by upgrading nuclear storage facilities at the Lakenheath airbase (UK), the future deployment of the B61-12 is of some concern. News that the deployment is to be accelerated makes the matter even more pressing. Here’s how we described the capabilities of the B61-12 in June:
B61-12 Nuclear Bomb
B61 nuclear bombs have been deployed in Europe under US nuclear sharing arrangements for some time. Originally designed as a Cold War weapon in the 1960s, the B61-12 (modification 12) entered production in December 2021 with the aim of extending the lifespan of these nuclear weapons. The latest modification includes ‘steerability’ and ‘dialable yields’, which means that the bombs can be launched some distance from their target (‘standoff capability’ meaning that pilots can reasonably expect not to be impacted by a nuclear blast) and that the explosive power of the bombs can be set as ‘usable’ on the battlefield. The development and deployment of these bombs to Lakenheath (and elsewhere in Europe) represents a significant and dangerous expansion of the US nuclear bootprint and an escalation in tension between nuclear-armed states.
Why accelerate the deployment? Politico quotes from the US diplomatic cable as follows:
“Given the rising volume and scale of Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, a subset of allies requested continued consultations at NATO to ensure continued readiness and consistent messaging.”
Commenting on Twitter, Hans Kristensen notes:
“One odd part of this story is that training/certification of the European unites wasn’t supposed to begin until turn of the year ... after which the weapons would arrive. Moving up deployment would require moving up training/certification first ... Nor should people think that all the European bases will necessarily receive the B61-12s at the same time. This exchange could happen over many months.”
Given that deployment was already planned and given the need to complete training and certification on the bombs before deployment, accelerating the deployment - or announcing an acceleration, which may be a different thing - seems like a political/strategic move rather than an operational imperative.
The language in the US cable suggests pressure from NATO member states for some sort of gesture. Poland’s political leaders have been signalling eagerness to join NATOs nuclear sharing arrangement. The accelerated deployment may have been announced as a concession. Whatever the reasons the accelerated deployment of B61-12s is unlikely to reduce nuclear tensions in Europe.