While the Jupiters warhead were permanently on top of the missiles, those for the other units were usually under the custody of special US Warhead Detachment Units. They were stored in a number of sites all in Northeast Italy (the main 5 ones were named Algon, Aldebaran, Pluto, River e Rigel). From a legal standpoint, the use of these weapons was regulated by a number of agreements – the most important of which was the exchange of notes between the US and the Italian governments of January 13, 1962. According to the agreement, Italy should take up the cost of the sites and Italian armed forces would guarantee for the external security of the sites, while custody of the warheads would remain in the hands of US units. The warheads would be used according to the procedure established by SACEur, and the decision to use them required the joint agreement of both governments.
To this long list of weapon systems one should also add the US units which manned the 112 BGN-109 Gryphon cruise missiles – the so-called euromissiles. They were deployed in Comiso, Sicily, after the North Atlantic Council’s dual track decision of December 1979. Their actual deployment began in early 1984 and they would be withdrawn as a consequence of the 1987 INF agreement. Each cruise was equipped with a W-84 warhead, with a variable yield in between 10 to 50 kt, and had a range of about 1.5000 miles.
Most of these weapons were withdrawn after the end of the cold war. The only remaining nuclear weapons in Italy are a number of B-61 gravitational bombs which in case of war could be transferred under the control of the Italian Air Force’s nuclear strike squadrons.
[Translated Table?]