A Sample Feature From Aviation News

The US nuclear deterrent in the UK – and how it might be used

‘…our major plans and force decisions will continue to be based on hedging against Russia,’ Paul Robinson, Director of Sandia National Laboratories and long term member of STRATCOM’s Strategic Advisory Group, said in a lengthy White Paper issued on March 22, 2001. Nothing has changed. The Editor has been to look at why that is so and what it means for US nuclear weapons in the UK.

Above: A Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle of the 48th Fighter Wing takes off from RAF Lakenheath, custodian to the largest assembly of air-drop nuclear bombs in Europe. (Photo, USAF)

The United States has between 300 and 400 nuclear weapons in Europe and the UK, and the highest percentage is in a small part of Suffolk, England. These totals discount the warheads for submarine-launched Trident ballistic missiles, comprising only tactical weapons designed to blur the distinction between suppression of a major land attack and all-out nuclear war. The largest single stockpile in Europe is located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, home to the 48th Fighter Wing, the nuclear role being carried, when necessary, by the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles operated by the 492nd FS and the 494th FS. This aircraft maintains a vital role as the most concentrated inventory of Strike Eagle force outside the US and its nuclear-adaptable role ensures this country remains a front-line site for any major confrontation between the US and a major power or powers.

At any one time there are approximately 110 gravity bombs stored at RAF Lakenheath, all of the B61-3, -4 and -10 types capable of pre-selected yield levels between 0.3KT to 170KT, equivalent to between 300 tonnes (the lowest yield of any nuclear weapon) and 170,000 tonnes of TNT. The B61-10 is a converted warhead from the Pershing II theatre and battlefield missile deployed, along with ground-based cruise missiles, in Germany during the 1980s and now deactivated. Designed in the 1960s, most B61 bombs have yields of between 10KT and 80KT and the weapon is the most flexible in the US nuclear arsenal. All are less than 12ft in length with a diameter of 13in and a weight of around 750lb, depending on variant.

Below: Development of the B61 bomb began in 1963 to a requirement for a drogue-retarded low-yield nuclear weapon that could be dropped at very high speeds from as low as 300ft. It is a dual purpose tactical/strategic weapon with a hardened, ground penetrating nose that tests have shown can be released from less than 50ft, retarded by a 24ft dia Kevlar parachute and fused to detonate 31sec or 81sec after activation. (Photo, Av News)

So how could these be used and why are they here? In any number of ways the US nuclear arsenal is suitable for regional warfare – the kind that could, theoretically, break out between major developed countries but for which there is little conventional response. The aircraft inventory of the US Air Forces Europe is finely tuned to preserve the option of switching at very short notice to a nuclear delivery force and to working co-operatively in the event of war.

For instance, passage of strike and bomber packages with their attendant refuelling points would be facilitated through clearance of ground-based AAA and SAM sites using cruise missiles or stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22s with JDAMs to destroy these threats. In much the same way the first wave of attack over Baghdad in the eviction of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1992 was performed by cruise weapons and F-117s, so too in a war against a major power today, with nuclear weapons involved, the F-22 and the B-2 would clear a path for unstealthy F-15E Strike Eagles. Extensive JDAM use by B-2s over Iraq in recent years has seamlessly qualified the stealthy penetration bomber for nuclear warfighting in a package mix of different aircraft types. On a single escorted penetration, each F-15E can carry up to five B61 nuclear weapons and, based in continental Europe, each F-16C/D can carry two if called upon to do so. In other options, each German and Italian Tornado is still capable of carrying one or two B61s.

It is with the relative ease that war-planners can now embrace the concept of survivability for the manned penetrating bomber that new options add depth to a strike package blending tactical and strategic objectives. In turn, this blurs the margins between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons. It also validates delivery systems thought by many to be redundant in a post-Cold War world where only one super-power remained dominant. Aircraft such as the B -2 and the F-22, are designed primarily for a major war with what strategists call ‘Great States’. Today, their application is gaining ground, fuelling calls for a B-3 (see Aviation News, March, p30) to carry the capability up to the next level. Never have so many words been written on the possible and plausible use of tactical nuclear weapons than in the last five years, but why would military leaders chose to use weapons that until now have been considered, for the most part, deterrents?

Above: A satellite view of RAF Lakenheath with blue triangles marking the exact location of the 60 Protective Aircraft Shelters at the site. Inside each lies a buried concrete vault with a vertically elevated bomb cage. (Photo, Av News)

One of the most significant shifts in strategy involving the use of nuclear weapons has been the deferral, at White House instigation, of the nuclear button to regional commanding generals in various theatres around the world. This major shift in removing the President’s finger as the sole trigger for nuclear war has given cause for public concern and much debate inside the military. It has also changed the way the nuclear weapons are stored – in their respective Weapon Storage and Security System (WS3) facilities unique to European deployment. The system allows individual weapons to be stored underground in Weapons Storage Vaults (WSVs) inside Protective Aircraft Shelters (PASs) rather than in igloos.

Below: A B61 used for compatibility tests during the early development of the General Dynamics F/FB-111, for which it was earmarked. Developed by Sandia Laboratories, it was the first US nuclear weapon to adopt the microprocessor-based arming and firing system. The B61 contains 4,000 parts in 1,800 subassemblies provided by 579 companies. (Photo, General Dynamics)

For the rest of this feature please see the April 2008 issue.