US fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing to be based in UK
Baku, August 31, AZERTAC
New United States fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons will be based in the UK as soon as this year.
Two squadrons of F-35 As have been deployed and will arrive at the US-rented RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk imminently, The Telegraph understands.
The stealth jets are designed to carry out tactical nuclear bombing and are capable of conducting air-to-air missions and intelligence gathering.
It comes after official documents suggested US nuclear weapons could return to British soil.
The documents revealed that the US Congress received an air force budgetary request for $50 million (£39.6 million) to build a “surety dormitory” at the American airbase. The term “surety” is used in US military parlance to refer to nuclear weapons.
Analysts believe the dormitory would accommodate an increased number of military personnel if nuclear weapons are deployed to bolster the 6,000 members of personnel who currently work at the base.
A defence source told The Telegraph: “F-35s will be based there. They have deployed and will be moving in at the end of this year, if not sometime in 2024.”
Military sources described the move to bring in 54 F-35s, which will replace the F-15s currently at the airbase, as “significant”. F-15s are able to carry nuclear weapons, but are less advanced.
The source said: “It’s a newer, more capable aircraft, which has a longer range and stealth, which is crucial if you are going to use them to accurately drop nuclear bombs.”
A total of 110 US nuclear bombs were stored at RAF Lakenheath until 2008, when they were removed after the threat of nuclear war subsided.
Both the Ministry of Defence and No 10 declined to comment on whether American nuclear warheads had or would be deployed to the UK.
However, the defence source added: “Why we have a special relationship with the US is because we talk to them, they talk to us and we don’t divulge secrets.”
The potential return of US nuclear weapons to British soil has been described by experts as evidence that the West has entered a new cold war.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain and Nato’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, said: “This is absolutely a cold war and it is strategic brinkmanship. This is a game of poker. If the US is putting nukes in the UK, it’s a message to Russia that they are serious.
“The deterrent is only a deterrent if the enemy thinks you will use it. That’s worked for the last 75 years, but we are now in a position where a tyrant in an unstable country is threatening to use nuclear weapons and the only way to stop them is to make them see they will get it back in spades.”
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