In early August, we reported that in the latest effort to spend the US defense budget the Pentagon was preparing to upgrade the US nuclear bomb arsenal, at a cost that had been estimated to range between $355 billion an up to $1 trillion. On Monday, a US-based think tank, The Stimson Center, responded to this proposal when it released a report titled "B61 Life Extension Program: Costs and Policy Considerations" which slammed the planned upgrades to the U.S. tactical nuclear bomb program as an “egregious” waste of money and said deployment overseas is risky.
The report added that Washington could make Europe safer by withdrawing the nuclear bombs from bases in foreign nations, particularly envisioning recent events in Turkey and specifically the 50 or more US B61 nuclear bombs held at Incirlik air base. As a reminder, in the aftermath of the July 15 failed coup, Turkish authorities blocked the Incirlik base off completely, cutting the facility’s electric power and prohibiting any aircraft from flying in or out of the airfield. “The continued presence of these weapons at five sites in Europe, particularly in Turkey, raises serious risks of their seizure by terrorists or other hostile forces,” the report said. The bombs are designated as tactical weapons, dropped from small, short-range aircraft. The report calls them all but obsolete given the U.S. strategic nuclear deterrence. “From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, just 70 miles from the Syrian border,” said report co-author Laicie Heeley. “These weapons have zero utility on the European battlefield and today are more of a liability than asset to our NATO allies,” said Heeley, a fellow with the Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program at the Stimson Center.
Around 50 of the bombs are stored at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, less than 110 km from the Syrian border. Security there is dependent on conditions in Turkey, which in recent weeks has turned increasingly belligerent toward the US.
