According to the Pentagon, they have long planned to upgrade the B61 nuclear bombs, but this is in no way related to the events in Ukraine. (If they say... - ed.)
Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernized American B61 combat nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe will lower the nuclear threshold, and that Russia will also take this into account in its military planning. "We cannot ignore the plans for the modernization of nuclear weapons, such as the free-fall bombs in Europe," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grusko, speaking to the Russian state news agency RIA-Novostyi.
Russia has about 2,000 operational combat nuclear weapons, while the United States has about two hundred, half of them at bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The newspaper Politico reported on October 26 that the United States announced at a private NATO meeting:
accelerates deployment of the upgraded version of B61, B61-12;
they will arrive at American bases in Europe several months earlier than planned, in December. The B61-12 gravity bomb has a smaller nuclear charge, but the new version is more accurate and can maneuver in mid-air to some extent, according to a 2014 study by the Association of American Scientists.
The Pentagon has said it does not want to discuss the details of the US nuclear arsenal, and the Politico article's assertion that the US has long planned to upgrade the B61 nuclear bombs is incorrect. Oscar Seara, the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, stated in a statement published by e-mail that the development of the bomb was in no way connected with the events in Ukraine, and that it was not accelerated in any way. Grusko also said that Russia would also consider Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets capable of deploying such bombs. The US is increasing its nuclear deterrent with F-35s, B61-12 bombs and nuclear-tipped air-launched drones, according to a US nuclear weapons report released on Thursday.
(MTI)
Featured image source: euronews.com
