Confirms new A weapons in Europe

After Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February last year, there have been several warnings that Russia may use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

In October, US President Joe Biden said the risk of using nuclear weapons was at the highest level since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Now a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense confirms to TV 2 that new, modernized nuclear weapons are being deployed in Europe.

It concerns B61-12 bombs developed and paid for by the United States. The approximately 3.5 meter long bombs are equipped with a guidance system that makes them more accurate.

The control mechanism will enable the bombs to, among other things, destroy underground military facilities.

Watch video of F-35 dropping a B61-12 practice bomb

– Have been open about this

The Pentagon spokesperson emphasizes that the US has been open about the development of these weapons for a number of years.

– The introduction of the modernized B61-12 to replace the older weapons on our European bases is good for a long-standing American commitment to strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defense capabilities, says the spokesperson in a statement conveyed in an email.

The Pentagon spokesperson points out that the modernization of the older B61 bombs was announced over ten years ago, in connection with “2010 Nuclear Posture Review”.

– The US has been open about this effort, which has been fully coordinated with our NATO allies. This is in no way connected to current events in Ukraine, and was not accelerated in any way, says the email that TV 2 received on Thursday afternoon Norwegian time.

– Deter Russia

Chief researcher Halvor Kippe at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI) tells TV 2 that the US’s new tactical weapons are intended to deter Russia from using nuclear weapons in Europe.

Russia is the nuclear power with the most tactical nuclear weapons, and President Vladimir Putin has regularly threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

The FFI researcher refers to the US’s nuclear weapons strategy, which is formulated in the document “2022 Nuclear Posture Review”.

– In the ungraded edition of the Nuclear Posture Review 2022, it is explicitly stated that the B61-12, delivered by the F-35 fighter jet, as well as a couple of other types of tactical nuclear weapons, should constitute an ability to deter Russia from both conventional and nuclear regional aggression. Understood in Europe, explains Kippe.

In the document, which Pentagon published at the end of October, it says that Nato has taken steps to ensure a modern and credible nuclear deterrent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

High-tech weapon

British The Telegraph last autumn referred to the B61-12 as a high-tech weapon, where the explosive power can be adjusted in four different levels: 0.3 and 1.5 and 10 and 50 kilotons of TNT. In comparison, the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had an explosive force of around 15 kilotons.

According to the Telegraph and Politico the upgraded nuclear weapons were originally to be deployed in Europe in the spring of 2023, on air bases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

But the process had been pushed forward to December 2022, US officials said in a closed-door meeting in Brussels, just days before NATO’s annual Steadfast Noon nuclear preparedness exercise in October.

Delivered from F-35 and B-2

The new nuclear bombs can be dropped from smaller aircraft such as the F-35, F-15 and F-16, but also the American strategic bomber B-2.

Both the F-35 and B-2 are so-called stealth aircraft that are very difficult for an enemy to detect. This means they can fly almost invisible and hit targets with the upgraded tactical bomb.

– European allies must be able to deliver the B61-12 with their own F-35 aircraft. The bombs are then handed over from American forces, who have these in self-controlled warehouses at European, allied air bases in peacetime, says Kippe to TV 2.

This autumn, US President Joe Biden said that the world risks “nuclear ragnarok” for the first time since the Cold War. While Russia has increased emphasis on nuclear weapons, the Biden administration believes, according to the Nuclear Posture Review 2022, that it is too risky to have a “No First Use” approach.

Credible deterrence

This is what the FFI researcher says about the background to the US deploying new, tactical nuclear weapons in Europe:

– The premise for deploying these American tactical nuclear weapons is that one does not want to rule out being able to fight a nuclear war that is not total. There are many who see it as an unrealistic premise, and that one must expect that any nuclear exchange will escalate into a total nuclear war, says Halvor Kippe.

He believes that one must look at the development of the latest version of the B-61 from several perspectives.

– One is that a modernization should strengthen the reliability, and thus the credibility, of the weapon, which in its original form dates from the late 1960s. The second is that nuclear weapon states see a need to maintain the competence to build and modify nuclear weapons, says Halvor Kippe and continues:

– Life-extending programs and modernization programs help to maintain such competence in the nuclear weapons complexes, which in turn help to maintain the credibility of the nuclear deterrent, says the chief scientist at FFI.

The modernization of these nuclear weapons has been very resource-intensive. In February 2022, Sandia National Laboratories announced in a press release that production of the B61-12 was underway, and that full-scale production was to start in May.

By then, more than 5,000 employees had worked on the modernization program over the past decade, Sandia stated.