B61 Bombs in Europe

October 14, 2019 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Glitches Delay B61 H-Bomb Replacement

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2019

All the B61 bombs now in the United States and Europe are scheduled to be replaced by the “mod-12.” The website airforcetechnology.com says, “The B61-12 air-launched tactical bomb will carry a low-yield nuclear warhead….” [emphasis added] With 50 kilotons of explosive blast (50,000 tons of TNT), the B61-12 has over three times the force of the Hiroshima bomb that killed 140,000 people. Only a military mentality reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove can imagine over 420,000 dead as a “low yield.”

A total of about 3,155 B61s have been produced (as of 2012), beginning with mod-0. Approximately 540 are still deployed, 415 are in “inactive” status, and 520 are set for dismantlement, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

According to the Dept. of Energy, four versions of the B61 remain in the arsenal: models 3, 4, 7, and 11. These nuclear bombs have explosive forces of 170 kilotons (mod 3), 45 kilotons (mod 4), 340 kilotons (mod 7), and 400 kilotons (mod 11). They have between 27 and 32 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb.

The B61-11 was reportedly built to destroy underground targets, and the Pentagon has asserted that it can detonate at depths of “several hundred feet.”

The Pentagon intends to replace all the B61s now deployed in five European NATO countries. The B61-3s and B61-4s are to be replaced with the new B61-12. About 400 of the new bombs were scheduled to enter full production in 2020 and be deployed after 2023, but the $10 billion program has been delayed because of the delivery of faulty commercial electronic parts.

Asked in May 2019 if the B61-12 will be ready in 2023 as planned, National Nuclear Security Administration head Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said, “That should be beyond 2025,” she said, noting that “an issue” had arisen, without elaborating. Energy officials later said the delay to the B61-12 could last 18 months, Congressional Quarterly News reported.

At present, Turkish, Dutch, Italian and possibly Belgian air forces are planning to buy some F-35 fighter jets from the United States, and the F-35s could begin replacing existing NATO warplanes in 2024. Germany is expected to extend the use of its Tornado fighter jets through the 2020s. German Tornado fighter jet pilots at Büchel Air Base practice in the use of the US B61s to initiate nuclear war.

In July 2018, after a group of International Week protesters occupied the air base runway, the chief pilot from the base made a personal visit to the peace camp to complain. The chief pilot said to Susan Crane of the US delegation that the protesters had “endangered themselves and the pilots.”

Crane replied that the “pilots endanger the whole world by planning and preparing for war with US nuclear weapons.” The chief then said, “There were no nuclear weapons on those jets today.” -JL

—Sources: Congressional Quarterly News, Sept. 17, 2019; Nuclear Weapon Archive; The National Interest, “Why the B61-12 Bomb Is the Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon,” Oct. 9, 2018; Nuclear Threat Initiative; Government Accounting Office, “B61-12 Nuclear Bomb: Cost Estimate,” May 31, 2018.

October 14, 2019 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Worst Kept Secret: US Nuclear Weapons Still in Europe

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2019

Nuclear weapons are secluded behind high-level security and top-secret deniability. None of the nine nuclear-armed countries ever “confirm or deny” the locations of their particular warheads. In our last issue we deciphered enough military doubletalk to confidently if unofficially verify that 20 US nuclear bombs are still deployed at Büchel.

Still it came as a surprise this summer when the Belgian newspaper De Morgen published a leaked NATO document detailing the exact numbers and locations of the US nuclear weapons now in Europe.

Quoting the leaked NATO report, De Morgen revealed that the “… US forward-deploys approximately 150 gravity bombs, specific B61 gravity bombs, to Europe for use on both US and Allied dual-capable aircraft. These bombs are stored at six US and European bases—Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel in Germany, Aviano in Italy and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Inçirlik in Turkey.” (“Dual-capable” is a warplane that carries both nuclear weapons and others.)

De Morgen’s July 16 headline was, “Finally in black and white: There are American nuclear weapons in Belgium.” The paper’s exposé marks the first time that the officially secret deployment has been authoritatively confirmed by NATO itself. Dutch broadcaster RTL News mocked the significance of the leaked document saying, “NATO reveals The Netherlands’s worst-kept secret.”

The NATO report, titled “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernization, arms control, and allied nuclear forces,” was finished April 16, 2019 by the Canadian Senator Joseph Day, who is the rapporteur for the Defense and Security Committee of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly. —JL

—Brussels De Morgen, July 16; The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post, the London Sun, the London Express, and Military Times online, July 17, 2019

July 11, 2019 by Nukewatch 1 Comment

Peace Activists Cut into Nuclear Weapons Base, Foiling Increased Security

International peace activists cut through new “security” fencing meant to keep nuclear weapons under control.

BÜCHEL, Germany — Calling themselves “Treaty Enforcement Action,” four peace activists (from the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands) cut through two perimeter fences and quickly entered the Büchel Air Base here around 4 p.m. July 10, 2019, carrying banners declaring the US and German Air Force’s planned use of nuclear weapons here makes the base a “crime scene.” While posing for photographs, the four were detained by air base security personnel, and later taken to jail in Koblenz and held overnight. All eight were released early Thursday.

Outside the high-security base, four others from the group posted “Crime Scene” notices on the outer fence and along a perimeter bike path. All eight activists were detained by security personnel and found in violation of a “Stay Away Order” issued earlier the same day. For violating that order, the eight were taken into custody, brought to Cochem for a court hearing, and transferred to jail in Koblenz.

The earlier “go-in” Wednesday at the Air Base saw 11 activists walk through the air base’s main gate and try to serve officials there with a self-styled “Treaty Enforcement Order.” The reference is to the international treaties on prohibition of nuclear weapons (2017), on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (1970), and Geneva Conventions which prohibit mass destruction.

The protesters’ order called for the immediate removal of US B61 nuclear bombs from the base, and their prompt return to the United States for dismantlement. The base is the site of the US 702^nd Munitions Support Squadron which controls a “Priority Level 1” stockpile of twenty B61 thermo nuclear bombs.

“The nuclear weapons must be removed, not just because they are unlawful, but because of the poor security at the base,” said Marion Küpker, spokesperson for the 68-member German-wide campaign Büchel is Everywhere! Nuclear Weapons-Free Now! “Members of the military and civil police declared several times that nonviolent go-in actions would now be impossible. Soldiers, a new private security company, and civil police are working together closely this year to guard the base, but they failed,” Küpker said, “even after months of publicity announcing that protesters would defy the newly increased base security this July.”

On April 30 this year, a group of 11 peace activists was the first to foil the base’s new fence, when they cut and dug under the wire and steel barrier to gain entry.

“Crime” reads the sign of the “Treaty Enforcement Action” activist who entered the Buechel nuclear weapons base on July 10, 2019.

This year marks the 3rd time in three years that a delegation of US peace activists has joined Europeans and others in nonviolent actions against the US nuclear weapons. The German group Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (GAAA) convenes “International Action Week”, and invites peace groups to conduct nonviolent actions highlighting three goals: 1) permanent ouster of the unlawful US nuclear weapons; 2) cancellation of plans to replace today’s B61s with new nuclear bombs; and 3) ratification by Germany of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The banner of Susan Crane and Magriet Bos of the Treaty Enforcment Action activists explains why they have entered the Buechel Air Force Base.

John LaForge, of the US peace group Nukewatch [www.nukewatchinfo.org] and coordinator of the US delegation, said, “There have been hundreds of accidents with nuclear weapons [see the website www.atomkriegausversehen.de(Belgium)], which show that deterrence is an illusion. And, with amateurs like us getting on base, that it’s impossible to keep the weapons themselves secure.”

Four international peace activists reached far beyond the two security gates surrounding Buechel Air Force Base where US nuclear weapons are housed.

Wednesday’s daring go-ins follow actions in 2017 and 2018 in which 60 protesters got inside the base, occupying the Air Force’s runway and even three different Protected Aircraft Shelters where the nuclear weapons can be stored. Since then, the military constructed its new perimeter fence.

The eight who were jailed are: Susan Crane, 75, of California; Ralph Hutchinson, 62, of Tennessee; Andrew Lanier, 26, of California; Magriet Bos, 32, of The Netherlands; Dennis DuVall, 77, of Arizona; Richard Barnard, 45, of the UK; Dietrich Gerstner, 54 of Germany; and Susan van der Hijden, 49, of The Netherlands.

July 10, 2019 by Nukewatch 1 Comment

Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal – Büchel Is a Crime Scene

For decades, the United States military has deployed its nuclear weapons on German soil. Here in Büchel, the 702^nd Munitions Support Squadron is responsible for the deployment and threatened use of its “Priority Level One” stockpile of B61 gravity bombs.

We come from the United States and many other countries to the Büchel Air Base on this 10^th of July 2019 to bring a halt to the ongoing criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes using these weapons of mass destruction.

Each and every B61 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bombs, as a matter of fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.^[1] These weapons are a crime against humanity and the planet itself.

As an act of crime prevention and responsible citizenship, we are here to resist the ongoing unlawful conspiracy by the United States and German Air Forces to commit mass destruction. We are here on behalf of everyone who is unaware of the existential threat that such planning poses to life, liberty, and the planet Earth; who are unaware of the binding legal prohibitions that outlaw planning for nuclear war; or who feel powerless to take effective action against the Büchel Air Base’s criminal war planning.

We act in accordance with common humanitarian law, Treaties governing the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and the authoritative opinion of the International Court of Justice, which says: “The Court recognizes…that the use of nuclear weapons could constitute a catastrophe for the environment. The Court also recognizes that the environment is not an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health of human beings, including generations unborn. …The destructive power of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in either space or time. They have the potential to destroy all civilization and the entire ecosystem of the planet.^[2]

For these reasons, guided by our conscience, the legal authority of the International Court of Justice, and the moral imperative to act residing in each person recognized by the Nuremberg principles, we call upon the personnel, powers and authorities at Büchel Air Base to take all such steps as are necessary to immediately stand down the US B61 nuclear weapons deployed there and to demand the permanent removal from sovereign German soil of these weapons of mass destruction.

Further, we call for these weapons to be returned to the United States of America from whence they came, to the Pantex facility in Amarillo, Texas, for immediate disassembly, dismantlement, and disposal.

[1] According to Professor of International Law Anabel L. Dwyer, University of Michigan: “The US, Germany and NATO know that each and every B61-3 and B61-4 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. The B61-3 is a 170-kiloton nuclear weapon. The B61-4 is a 50-kiloton weapon. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bomb, as a matter fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.”

[2] Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, International Court of Justice, The Hague.

Peace Activists Cut into Nuclear Weapons Base, Foiling Increased Security

Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal – Büchel Is a Crime Scene

Contact Us

Donate To Nukewatch

Contact Us

Donate To Nukewatch

Stay Connected