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One of the US nuclear bombs stored at a Dutch air base may have been damaged in a recent accident, according to a report published on Monday, which comes at a time when a new generation of the weapons are due to arrive on the continent. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) discovered a photograph of a B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers, including two from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, and a civilian. The rear of the bomb appears to have been twisted by an impact and one of the tail fins is missing. There is...

The delivery of tanks, advanced air defense systems and potentially long-range ground-launched bombs may be a response to Ukraine’s dire requests, but it also brings with it a new load of problems. These hastily and urgently provided supplies indicate that all is not well in Kiev and that it is closer than ever to losing the war with Russia. These are not one-to-one replacements for equipment lost: Most of the delivered supplies aim to shift the fortunes of the war in favor of Ukraine. At least one of the projected weapons, a 100-mile ground-launched long-range bomb known as ATACMS, also...

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday it had "successfully" modernized the first B61 nuclear gravity bomb to increase the nation's air-delivered nuclear deterrent capability amid threats of war with Russia in Ukraine and China in the South China Sea and or in the Taiwan Strait. Over the years, we've been documenting (read: here & here) NNSA's $12 billion program to modify aging B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs for the modern battlefield. The weapons first entered service in the late 1960s and needed upgrades to be more effective and increase lifespan by another two decades. The...

The tests in the Nevada desert come as tensions rise with Russia and the Pentagon seeks to replace its aging nuclear arsenal. A pair of U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers dropped two 700-pound faux nuclear bombs in the middle of the Nevada desert within the past few days. Now the Pentagon wants to tell you about it.Conducted “earlier this month,” according to an Oct. 6 press release, the test involved two dummy variants of the B61, a nuclear bomb that has been in the U.S. arsenal since the 1960s. One was an “earth penetrator” made to strike underground targets, the other...

An obscure website published a vague report Thursday making the dramatic claim that relations between Washington and Ankara had deteriorated so badly that the United States had begun moving nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania. The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any basis at all for the report, which alleged B61 nuclear weapons were on their way to Romania’s Deveselu base. Romania’s defense ministry promptly denied it and experts dismissed the idea as illogical for technical and other reasons.

The U.S. Defense Department drew up orders for the evacuation of military dependents from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as the attempted military coup got underway Friday night but abandoned them as the insurrection quickly collapsed, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Monday. While not confirming the presence of nuclear weapons at Incirlik, Cook also said steps had been taken to boost security for "special weapons" at the base shared with the Turkish Air Force to "keep everything safe, and we're going to continue to do that. As a matter of policy, we don't discuss strategic assets." Arms control...

The US Air Force and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have conducted the first flight test of the jointly developed B61-12 guided nuclear bomb from a Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. The billion-dollar weapon system couples a refurbished 1960s B61 with a tail kit assembly produced by Boeing. It has been in development since 2012 and will be the primary tactical nuclear weapon carried by US and NATO forces once it enters service in the early 2020s by consolidating the four existing variants (B61-3, -4, -7, and -10), with the exception of the powerful...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Prosecutor asks for 3 more months to complete terrorist probe Associated Press Worldstream ANTHONY DEUTSCH; Associated Press Writer September 2, 2002 Monday 10:43 AM Eastern Time ROTTERDAM, Netherlands The public prosecutor on Monday asked for three more months to complete his case against four men accused of plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. targets in France and Belgium. Prosecutors say that in addition to the Paris embassy, the group targeted the Kleine-Brogel base in northeast Belgium, where around 100 U.S. Air Force personnel are...

Despite the end of the Cold War, and the dismantling of over 25,000 nuclear weapons, NATO still maintains a stock of nuclear bombs in Europe. These are American weapons, to be used by NATO allies with U.S. permission. They are not covered by START (the strategic nuclear disarmament treaty) because they are not strategic, they are local, or "theater" weapons. NATO would like to negotiate a disarmament treaty to cover such non-strategic nukes, but to get the Russians to do that, it helps if there are some nukes under NATO control. Like with START, a treaty covering non-strategic weapons would...

NATO leaders are unlikely to agree to reduce the defense organization's tactical nuclear stockpiles when they meet later this month, defense officials said Saturday. The leaders are to meet in Lisbon on November 19-20 to map out the future of the 61-year-old alliance. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will also attend the talks expected to touch on missile defense. The nuclear arsenal across Europe remains a source of friction with Russia and within NATO -- with Germany, Poland and Sweden calling for a greater NATO commitment to nuclear disarmament resisted by France and the United States. But a revised mission statement...

The German Defense Ministry has denied a newspaper report that it plans to decommission its entire fleet of Tornado jets by 2013, a move that would effectively end a nuclear weapons sharing deal with the United States. Guarded by U.S. soldiers, an estimated 22 U.S. nuclear weapons are locked away in the bunkers under the Fliegerhorst Buechel, an airbase in Rhineland-Palatinate run by the German Luftwaffe. The B-61 thermonuclear bombs, which can be dropped from low-flying jets at high speeds, signify the ultimate nuclear deterrent: They're 13 times more devastating than the bomb dropped over Hiroshima in 1945. As part...

When it comes to nuclear weapons, oldies are goodies. Take, for example, the American B61 nuclear device. About the same shape as a 1,000 pound (455 kg) bomb, many NATO fighter bombers were equipped (with the electronics) to use this bomb during the Cold War (and many can still do so). Some 3,200 B61s were built since it entered service in the late 1960s, and about a third of those remain available for use. Some are to be refurbished, but politicians are still debating doing this just to keep B61s good for another two decades. Without the refurb, all these...

For more than 60 years, nuclear-armed fighters have been a key part of the US deterrence calculus, particularly in Europe. Indeed, providing the umbrella of "extended deterrence" to NATO nations has been a mission performed by generations of USAF air crews, maintainers, and security forces. It now appears that, before long, the iconic nuclear fighter role, performed in recent years by the F-15E and F-16, will pass to a new heavyweight—the F-35 Lightning II. As the Obama Administration sees it, nuclear weapons delivered by fighters will continue to play an important role in the nation’s international affairs. The 2010 Nuclear...

Unseen beyond the grazing Holsteins and rolling pastures of eastern Belgium, the 12-foot-long tapered metal cylinders sit in their underground vaults, waiting for the doomsday call that never came. Each packs the power of many Hiroshimas. America's oldest nuclear weapons -- unwanted, outdated, a legacy of the 20th century -- are now the focus of a political struggle that could shake the NATO alliance in the 21st. The questions hanging over the B-61 bombs, an estimated 200 of them on six air bases across Europe, relate to not just why they're still here but how safe and secure they are....

As part of a newly unveiled Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon has made public plans to make its all-purpose stealth fighter capable of carrying nuclear weapons. But in the interim, it still has to cope with some massive (but not massively surprising) cost overruns on the aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Nuclear Posture Review, a sweeping statement of purpose for the U.S. nuclear arsenal, cast light on a rarely-discussed piece of the nuclear deterrent: tactical nukes that are stationed in Europe. In a briefing yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said these weapons would remain a key piece...

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday that the western military alliance will debate the bloc's nuclear policy in Estonia next month. He said a "discussion" is planned after the foreign ministers of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway requested "a major debate" on NATO's nuclear policy at their next gathering in Tallinn on April 22 and 23. However, Rasmussen stressed that the talks, which come as President Barack Obama mulls a drastic cut in the US nuclear arsenal, will have to balance calls to remove outdated weapons with a need for a strategic nuclear "deterrent." The...

Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike? Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets? And what about Germany - a country where fear of atomkraft is so great that the last government opposed all civilian nuclear power? Germany's air force couldn't possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it? It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond those - Britain and France - who have built their own weapons. Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium,...

The Energy Department has completed the first life extension on a 1960s-era nuclear bomb that is part of the Pentagon's strategic deterrent, a senior department official said yesterday. "Completing the B61 first production unit is an important step in keeping our nuclear weapons stockpile safe and reliable," said Tom D'Agostino, deputy administrator for defense programs at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.