The United Kingdom is set to purchase twelve American F-35A fighter jets capable of deploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced during the NATO summit in The Hague, according to reports from British media outlets including The Guardian.
The new aircraft will be equipped to carry various types of munitions, including the B61-12, a gravity bomb developed by the United States. This bomb has an explosive yield over three times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, the paper notes.
This procurement marks the most significant shift in the UK’s nuclear posture since the end of the Cold War. It signals the return of American nuclear bombs to British territory, as the warheads are expected to be stored within the UK.
The UK has not hosted U.S. nuclear weapons since 2008. Additionally, Britain has not possessed its own nuclear gravity bombs since the retirement of the WE177 in 1998 under a previous Labour government. However, the country still maintains a fleet of submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear warheads.
Photo Rob Vogelaar
