{"id":997,"date":"2022-06-08T13:50:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T11:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/?page_id=997"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T09:49:49","slug":"current-deployment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/nuclear-sharing\/current-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since 1955<\/a>, (West) Germany hosts US nuclear weapons. Today, nuclear bombs are stored at B\u00fcchel Air Base in Rheinland-Pfalz. Besides Germany, the NATO allies Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey also host US nuclear weapons<\/a>. The weapons deployed in Europe and Turkey form the \u201ctechnical component\u201d of NATO\u2019s nuclear sharing. Through the \u201cpolitical component\u201d of nuclear sharing, countries have a say in the formulation of the Alliance\u2019s nuclear strategy. This does not require the stationing of US nuclear weapons on a particular country\u2019s soil. Most NATO members do not host nuclear weapons, yet are involved in NATO\u2019s nuclear discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nuclear sharing in NATO. All NATO members (except France) participate in the meetings of the Nuclear Planning Group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Country<\/strong><\/td>Location<\/strong><\/td>Nuclear Weapons<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Germany<\/td>B\u00fcchel<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium<\/td>Kleine Brogel<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
Netherlands<\/td>Volkel<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/td>Aviano<\/td>20<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/td>Ghedi Torre<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
Turkey<\/td>\u0130ncirlik<\/td>20<\/td><\/tr>
Total<\/strong><\/td><\/td>100<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Where are US nuclear weapons currently deployed? The figures given are estimates by H. Kristensen and M. Korda (2021)<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

German authorities confirm neither the deployment of the nuclear weapons nor their number or location. However, leading experts agree in their estimate of the number of weapons at about <\/a>15. There are also other indications \u2013 nuclear weapons were mentioned in a dispatch<\/a> published by Wikileaks, and briefly appeared in a report<\/a> by NATO\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly. Recent reports<\/a> refer to 100 bombs stationed in NATO territory.

At B\u00fcchel Air Base, the nuclear bombs are under the control of US soldiers of the 702nd Munitions Support Squadron. They are stored in underground vaults (Weapons Storage and Security System, W3S) inside the aircraft hangars. Eleven such vaults are assumed to exist in B\u00fcchel, each of which can hold four nuclear weapons. Other<\/a> vaults are installed at two former deployment locations, the German N\u00f6rvenich Air Base (11) and the American Ramstein Air Base (44).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extensive construction measures will be carried out at B\u00fcchel Air Base from 2022 to 2026. During this time, the aircraft will be relocated<\/a> to N\u00f6rvenich. No official information is known about the potential relocation of the stationed nuclear weapons or the deployment itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Luftbild
Aerial view of<\/strong> B\u00fcchel Air Base by Stahlkocher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1955, (West) Germany hosts US nuclear weapons. Today, nuclear bombs are stored at B\u00fcchel Air Base in Rheinland-Pfalz. Besides Germany, the NATO allies Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey also host US nuclear weapons. The weapons deployed in Europe and Turkey form the \u201ctechnical component\u201d of NATO\u2019s nuclear sharing. Through the \u201cpolitical component\u201d of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"parent":1181,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-997","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997\/revisions\/1409"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearsharing.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}