The US may deploy tactical nuclear weapons at the Lakenheath military base in Suffolk county in eastern England in the next few years, Telegraph reports.
According to the newspaper, a multi-million pound storage facility for such weapons is being built at the airbase in question. It should be completed in the next few years.
Europe has about 100 American nuclear bombs B61, which are stored at bases in NATO countries – Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Germany. About 150 more such bombs are based in the US and can be dropped from F-35 fighter jets.
The newspaper also noted that Britain and France are discussing the possibility of bilateral co-operation to develop their own tactical nuclear weapons in an effort to reduce their military dependence on Washington.
Earlier, The New York Times conducted a poll among 530 congressmen, who will begin work in the US House of Representatives and Senate in January, on the president’s use of nuclear weapons without congressional approval.
Some respondents answered favourably to the question about the unilateral right of the country’s leader to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike in response to an attack by another state’s weapons of mass destruction without the approval of a majority of congressmen.
