Pentagon accelerating plans of stockpiling B61-12 gravity bombs in Europe, says Report

Pentagon is accelerating its plans of stockpiling upgred B61-12 gravity bombs in Europe under its NNSA’s B61-12 Life Extension Plan scheduled to complete by 2025, a diplomatic cable and at least two sources familiar with development told Politico anonymously.  updated nuclear warhes, which were scheduled for storing and possible deployment in 2024 alongside delivery vehicle modernisation programs, will now arrive this December,  US officials have briefed  North Atlantic Alliance during a closed-door meeting in Brussels held earlier this month.

About three-and-a-half meters,  earth-penetrating B61-12 is a variant of  B61 nuclear bomb first developed in 1963. It is  most versatile nuclear warhe in United States' nuclear arsenal that uses a new tail kit assembly to convert B61-4 into a 50-kiloton guided standoff nuclear warhe. Bulletin of atomic scientists estimates that US has five B61 versions of nuclear bombs in stockpile—  B61-3, -4, and -10 tactical bombs; B61-7 strategic bomb; and B61-11 strategic earth-penetrating bomb.

Pentagon has been planning to retire three and convert B61-4 into B61-12 to serve all gravity bomb missions on strategic and tactical aircraft. B61-12 production engineering phase began on June 2016 and first-ever system qualification test flight was conducted in March 2017 when nuclear bomb was dropped from US Air Force’s F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft. 

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Modernization of US B61 nuclear weapons underway for years

recent decision of ramping up upgration was me due to looming security threats posed by Russia's ongoing offensive in Europe's eastern flank. B61-12 variant, upgred by United States for Europe, would include  tail kit to improve accuracy and will allow variable yield capability, with a yield ranging from 0.3 KT to 170 KT for both strategic and tactical use. older weapons will be replaced by  newer version at various storage facilities in Europe for potential use by United States and NATO-allied bombers and fighter jets. y can be loed onto dual-capable NATO-designated fighters such as F-35A, F-18 Super Hornet, or Eurofighter Typhoon.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told Politico via an email that “while we aren’t going to discuss details of our nuclear arsenal, modernisation of US B61 nuclear weapons has been underway for years." He continued that "plans to safely and responsibly swap out older weapons for upgred B61-12 versions is part of a long-planned and scheduled modernization effort.

"It is in no way linked to current events in Ukraine and was not sped up in any way," he iterated. 

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 exact figures for European-deployed stockpiles of US and NATO aren't declassified. But an estimate by Arms Control center suggests that re are 100 US-owned nuclear weapons stored in five NATO member states across six bases— Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel Air Base in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi Air Bases in Italy, Volkel Air Base in Nerlands, and Incirlik in Turkey. se nuclear bombs are not armed or deployed on fighter jets but are stored in WS3 underground vaults in national airbases with  Permissive Action Link (PAL) codes. 

 Pentagon officials now say that upgre of  Nuclear earth-penetrator weapons (EPWs) of US under  B61 program has been critical in order to modernize nuclear arsenal of United States and its allies. prospect was widely brought up for discussions during passing of  budget documents as well as public briefings. geopolitical analysts, though, believe that US storing modernised nuclear weapons at Europe's bases might stoke tensions and le to a "dangerous" escalation with Moscow.

' Russians know..'

talks were held in Brussels during NATO's annual 'Stefast Noon' exercise involving dozens of fighter jets over north-western Europe that demonstrated nuclear deterrence capabilities. drills included military forces from at least 14 countries and up to 60 warplanes, including fourth and fifth-generation fighter jets, surveillance, and tanker aircraft, and lasted from October 17 to October 30. Moscow also held nuclear drills dubbed as "Grom" [Thunder] involving nuclear-capable bombers, submarines, and missiles as well as  participation of Russia’s nuclear tri that included Russian Federation's nuclear submarine of Pacific Fleet. 

Expressing worry at situation, Hans Kristensen, director of Nuclear Information Project at Federation of American Scientists, told Politico: “It would be odd to rush it in. y have been saying we don’t respond to this situation with nuclear weapons. I don’t think y want to go down that one.” “My guess is it is aimed more towards NATO than Russia,” Tom Collina, director of policy at Ploughshares Fund, a disarmament group, reportedly said. “re are [older] B61s alrey re. Russians know that," he remarked.