Nukewatch has reported that US nuclear bombs were delivered to RAF Lakenheath in West Suffolk on Thursday 17th July.
No official confirmation of this has been given but Nukewatch (link below) builds a compelling case, with photos of activity and a detailed report of a timeline of events around the arrival of a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft. If this is true, this means US nuclear weapons are on British soil for the first time since 2008.
Juliet McBride of Nukewatch UK said:
“The new nuclear bombs which are now based at Lakenheath are entirely under the control of Donald Trump and could be used without the UK having any say at all in the matter. In fact, we wonder whether the UK government has even been notified by the US Air Force that the weapons are now stationed at Lakenheath.
“The nuclear weapons now stored at Lakenheath have an explosive power of up to 50 kilotons. For comparison, the atom bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945 had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons. Far from protecting Europeans during wartime, these nuclear weapons would contribute to turning Europe into a radioactive wasteland.”
After months of activity at the base, believed to be in preparation for the weapons’ arrival, CND is calling for the UK Government to make a formal statement ‘on the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain and allow for a transparent debate and vote in Parliament on any such deployment.’ We wholeheartedly support this call.
The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, of which Greenham Women Everywhere is part, organise monthly vigils at the main gate of RAF Lakenheath between 12noon and 2pm on the last Saturday of every month – the next one will be this weekend 26th July . We suspect that further actions will be announced and we are watching the news here carefully to ensure we understand what’s going on.
Read the Nukewatch article
Read coverage in The Express
Read coverage in Declassified UK
Read CND response
Find out about the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace