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US nukes in UK ‘would provoke Putin and put Britons on front line in any nuclear war’

THE RETURN of US nukes to the UK would be “insanely provocative” and put Britons on the front line of a nuclear war, it has been claimed.

 https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1636941/vladimir-putin-russia-us-nuclear-weapons-lakenheath-return-latest By JON KING. Jul 9, 2022 US Government budget papers revealed earlier this year that vaults at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk are being upgraded so they can store B61-12 nuclear bombs. The air base received the latest nuclear capable fighter jet, the F-35A, in December with 48 expected to be stationed there.

Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, spotted the US Department of Defense had added the UK to a list of NATO nuclear weapons storage locations.

RAF Lakenheath has been home to US nuclear weapons in the past and has been undergoing upgrade work amounting to £600million, most of which is paid for by US taxpayers.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), however, has neither confirmed nor denied that US nuclear weapons are in Britain or going to come to UK shores.

CND General Secretary Kate Hudson, commenting on US nuclear weapons coming to Britain, told Express.co.uk: “We should be very worried by this. Allowing the US to bring these weapons back to Britain is a very dangerous development.

“It would be insanely provocative. It would put us even more on the front line in any nuclear exchange. To have new, US [nuclear weapons] here when there’s a considerable possibility of a war between NATO, the US, and Russia – it is very, very dangerous.

“We hope the US will pull back from any actual deployment.”

An MOD spokesperson said: “It is NATO and UK policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”

It comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West with Russian President Vladimir Putin having put his country’s nuclear deterrent on alert at the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry said last month Moscow would supply ally Belarus with missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the United States on Wednesday (July 6) attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity.

Commenting before Boris Johnson announced he was stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party, Ms Hudson accused the PM of being a “vociferous advocate” of escalating the war against Russia and putting Britain in a “very dangerous” position.

She continued: “If that continues, it is likely we will have a nuclear exchange. It is pretty impossible to imagine Britain would not be at the front of that exchange, knocking out Lakenheath and Faslane.”

July 11, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, weapons and war