By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Portal) Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernized US B61 tactical nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe would reduce the “nuclear barrage” and that Russia would take the measure into account in its military planning.
Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons in use, while the US has about 200 such weapons, half of which are on bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on October 26 that the US said at a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate deployment of the modernized version of the B61, the B6112, with new weapons due in December would arrive at European bases. , many months earlier than planned.
“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, these freefall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Gurshko told the state news agency RIA.
The B6112 gravity bomb, about 3.5 meters tall, carries a nuclear warhead with a lower yield than many previous versions, but is more accurate and can penetrate the ground, according to the Federation of American Scientists study published in 2014. The US is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reduce the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into ‘battlefield weapons’, thus lowering the nuclear bar,” Grushko said.
The Pentagon said it would not discuss the details of the US nuclear arsenal and that the premise of the Politico article was wrong because the US had long planned to modernize its B61 nuclear weapons. “The modernization of B61 nuclear weapons has been underway for years, and plans to safely and responsibly swap out older weapons for the updated B6112 versions are part of a longplanned and planned modernization effort,” Pentagon spokesman Oscar Seara said. “It is in no way connected to current events in Ukraine and has not been expedited in any way,” Seara said in an emailed statement.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced the most serious conflict between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that in the event of an attack, Russia will defend its territory by any means available, including nuclear weapons.
The comments sparked particular concern in the West after Moscow said last month it had annexed four regions of Ukraine parts of which are controlled by its armed forces. Putin says the West is pursuing nuclear blackmail against Russia. The US B61 nuclear bomb was first tested in Nevada shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Development of a new version of the bomb, the B6112, was approved under the 20092017 presidency of Barack Obama.