The United States is planning to station nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in 15 years to counter threats from Russia, it emerged last night.
Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil. Moscow said it would view the move as an ‘escalation’ that would be met with ‘counter-measures’.
Procurement contracts for a new facility at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk show the US plans to house B61-12 gravity bombs ‘imminently’ at the site.
US warheads were last stationed in Britain in 2008, when it was judged that the Cold War threat from Russia had decreased.
The plans come as part of a Nato-wide programme aimed at developing and upgrading nuclear sites in response to rising tensions with the Kremlin.
The unredacted documents from the US Department of Defence’s procurement database show the Pentagon has ordered equipment, including ballistic shields, for Lakenheath, and state that construction of a housing facility for US soldiers at the base will start in June.
Hellbound and Down 