Nuclear weapon activists sounded the alarm last Friday, Feb. 2, in reaction to recent evidence that the U.S. is planning to station nukes in the United Kingdom for the first time in more than 15 years, a move that government critics said would only intensify the danger of a nuclear war.
The U.S. pulled out more than 100 nuclear bombs from the Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath (RAF Lakenheath) in western Suffolk in 2008 after continuous protests from U.K.-based anti-nuclear weapons groups, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
CND warned in a statement Friday that the redeployment of nukes to Lakenheath would "make Britain a guaranteed target in the event of any war between NATO and Russia." (Related: Former Russian President Medvedev once again threatens to nuke Britain in unhinged rant.)
"We encourage both the media and the public to increase pressure on the British government to be honest about this deployment," said Kate Hudson, CND's general secretary.
The Telegraph recently reported that "procurement contracts for a new facility at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk confirm that the U.S. intends to place nuclear warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb at the air base."
"The return of American weapons to the U.K. is part of a NATO-wide program to develop and upgrade nuclear sites in response to heightened tensions with the Kremlin in the wake of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine," the U.K. newspaper added. "Russia has stated that the placement of U.S. weapons in Britain would be viewed by Moscow as an 'escalation' and would be met with 'compensating countermeasures.'"
Lakenheath base is being prepared for the return of U.S. nuclear weapons
CND said Friday it has "strongly suspected" that the Lakenheath base was being prepared for the return of U.S. nukes for almost two years, and with construction of the nuclear storage facilities expected to start in June 2024 and end in February 2026.
Documents collected since 2022 have presented evidence that nuclear weapons will return, and these include the upgrade of nuclear storage locations at RAF Lakenheath to store the new B61-12 guided nuclear bomb; plans to construct a new "surety dormitory" to house U.S. Air Force staff for a nuclear mission; and just recently, contracts to establish ballistic protection sites at the base, designed to protect troops from strikes on "high-value assets" in the country.
CND, represented by law firm Leigh Day Solicitors, has questioned the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense (MoD) and local officials about the "lawfulness of the planning rights used to allow the building of the surety dormitory."
"The Lakenheath upgrades form part of a wider effort to upgrade U.S./NATO nuclear infrastructure across Europe, which has preceded – and likely provoked – Russia's deployment of its own nuclear weapons to Belarus. Despite this, neither the U.S. nor the U.K. government had given information to the public about this deployment," the organization said.
"Far from making us safer, this deployment has escalated the dangers, brought Russian nukes to Europe, and made us a nuclear target. It's shameful that our government continues to take us for fools on this serious matter. They are refusing to give us crucial information about our security," Hudson said.
Meanwhile, Leigh Day environment team solicitor Ricardo Gama said: "The MoD says that the Lakenheath development won't lead to significant environmental effects, but in coming to that conclusion our client argues they have ignored the potential environmental effects of stationing nuclear weapons at the airbase, including the potential for nuclear accidents."
Gama emphasized that to allow the local planning authority, West Suffolk Council, and members of the community to conclude whether the MoD is going through the right process and whether the potential effects of the development are acceptable, the U.K. Defense Ministry "needs to provide transparent information about what the purpose of the development is."
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Watch the video from Tru News about a Russian legislator saying Russia could use nuclear weapons against Great Britain.
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