This year, the US will send the UK new fighter jets that can carry nuclear weapons. Soon, two F-35 units will arrive at the RAF Lakenheath base in Suffolk, which the US rents. The stealth jets can do tasks between planes, drop tactical nuclear bombs, and gather information.
After formal papers showed that the US could send nuclear weapons back to Britain.
The papers showed that the US Congress got a budget request from the air force for $50 million (£39.6 million) to build a “surety dormitory” at the station. “Surety” is a word that the US military uses to talk about nuclear weapons.
Analysts think that if nuclear bombs are used to add to the base’s 6,000 military men, the dormitory could hold even more people.
“F-35s will be based there,” an army insider told The Telegraph. After deployment, they will move in late this year or in 2024.”
The Ministry of Defence and Number 10 would not say whether or not there were American nuclear weapons in the UK. “We have a special relationship with the US because we talk to them, they talk to us, and we don’t tell secrets,” the defence insider said.
Experts say that a new cold war has started in the West if the US sends nuclear weapons back to Britain.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who used to be in charge of the British and NATO Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Regiment, said, “This is absolutely a cold war and strategic brinkmanship. The game is poker. Russia gets the message that the US means business when there are nukes in the UK.”The enemy must believe you’ll use the warning. That worked for 75 years, but now a dictator in an unstable country is threatening to use nuclear weapons, and the only way to stop them is to show them they will get it back in heaps.”
Prof Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute think tank said that building on the airbase means the US “could move them a lot more quickly in a time of growing tensions” and that “they want the option of bringing them here.”
Matt Hancock, who serves RAF Lakenheath in West Suffolk, said that the “potential expansion” was great news. The individual expressed their deep understanding of the significance of RAF Lakenheath and emphasised the importance of reinforcing our dedication to collective security and democratic values.
Americans in the military have always been welcome in West Suffolk. We must protect and stand with our American friends, especially in the face of Putin’s dangerous aggression.”
Tobias Ellwood, the head of the military select committee, said, “If the Americans think they need to store nuclear weapons on this side of the Atlantic, it’s a huge sign of how dangerous and complicated our world is getting.”
Mr. Ellwood says that the UK is “part of a strategic alliance” in which “the US is our closest partner” and that the US should support the UK “if they believe it is in the wider security interests to place these weapons in the UK.”
Hans Kristensen, who is in charge of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said that official US government budget records show that RAF Lakenheath is getting improvements that could mean nuclear weapons are moved there.
There are about 150 B-61 nuclear gravity bombs in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey.
Mr. Kristensen told The Telegraph that there are now signs that they might put nuclear weapons at Lakenheath.
He said that the extra money will be used to “improve the places where nuclear weapons are kept and build more places for people to live so they can do their job” at the base.
But Mr. Kristensen warned that because of their nuclear posture in Europe, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Nato would have to agree to any nuclear weapons being kept on British land.
He said that the US president must give permission for the deployment of nuclear weapons. The CND promises to stop nuclear weapons from the US from coming back to the UK. CND said that if these weapons went back to Britain, it would make Britain “once again a forward nuclear base for the US.”
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