&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "US military stations nuclear weapons in Britain after 15 years. Here's why")
For the first time in over 15 years, the United States has stationed its nuclear weapons in Britain, one of its closest strategic allies. An American C-17 transport plane visited RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk last week, flying from New Mexico's Kirtland Air Force base, where the US Air Force keeps its nuclear arsenal. This flight contained nuclear bombs, according toseveral reports.
The Barack Obama administration had removed these weapons from British soil in 2008. The Telegraph, UK, quoting unclassified documents, reported that there were plans for an upcoming "nuclear mission". While the authorities didn't comment on the nuclear mission, experts told the newspaper that the C-17 flight last week closely matched previous missions by the USAF to transport nuclear bombs.
On Thursday, the authorities restricted airspace over the base. Theaircraft didn't immediately return to the United States, in what appeared to be a "one-way drop off", reported The Times. The plane refueled over the east coast of the US, a clue that it was on an urgent mission.
RAF Lakenheath hosts USAF’s 48th Fighter Wing, which contains two squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagle fast jets and two squadrons of the fifth-generation F-35A jets. The UK is planning to buy its squadron of F-35As. These warplanes can drop nuclear gravity bombs. According to reports, the British planes are expected to be equipped with US weapons.
If this comes to fruition, Britain will have the capacity to launch nuclear weapons from the air.
“This decision reintroduces a nuclear role for the RAF for the first time since the UK retired its sovereign air-launched nuclear weapons after the Cold War,” said the UK government's document.
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The Lakenheath facility had bought new blast shields recently and was building a “surety dormitory”, a name used by the US for a safe storage of nuclear weapons.