A Tornado with a training nuclear bomb is spotted in US airspace. The real model is soon to be stationed in Germany.
Edwards Air Force Base – The German fighter plane “Tornado” was spotted flying over a Californian air force base at the end of August. The fighter jet was apparently carrying a nuclear bomb that is used for training purposes. Numerous American nuclear weapons are stationed in Germany as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing program. They serve as a deterrent.
German Tornado fighter jets equipped with nuclear bombs in the USA
A photo taken on August 27 at Edwards Air Force Base in California has now been shared on X. It shows a Tornado with a B61-12 nuclear bomb trainer that the fighter jet carries under its belly. Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, announced this on the platform. The Tornado fighter jet can carry both nuclear and non-nuclear weapons.
The spokesman for the procurement office of the German Armed ForcesSören Schmelz, confirmed Newsweek via email that two German Tornado fighter jets were currently in the US to take part in the “Silent Companion 24” campaign, which has just concluded. “Both aircraft are currently undergoing regular inspection and will return home between September 11 and 13,” Schmelz added about the presence of the two German fighter jets in the US.
Germany’s nuclear participation: USA stations nuclear bombs
Like Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, Germany is part of the nuclear sharing and thus involved in NATO’s deterrence. The USA has stationed a “limited number” of B-61 nuclear weapons at certain European locations, as NATO wrote in February 2022. Among them are said to be some at the Büchel air base in Rhineland-Palatinate, as Newsweek reported. At the beginning of the year, there were discussions about stationing US nuclear weapons in Great Britain.
Successor to Tornado fighter jet: F-35 already registered as carrier for nuclear weapons
The B61-12 is according to Newsweek the latest variant of the B61 family of atomic bombs and has four selectable yield levels of up to 50 kilotons of TNT. For comparison: the US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945 had an explosive yield of 15 and 25 kilotons. The B61-12 is expected to have an extended service life of at least two decades and will replace all US nuclear weapons stationed in Europe in the next few years. The USA is said to already be working on a new model of nuclear weapon.
Equipped with a guided tail that increases accuracy, the bomb can be selected to hit existing targets at lower power, reducing collateral damage. The Tornado’s successor, the F-35 fighter jet, has already been added to the list of aircraft approved for the B61-12. (vk)
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