AN RAF base is set to house US fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons for the first time in 15 years.
The mooted arrival of powerful new aircraft has been greeted as a message from Western allies to Russia’s warmongering president Vladimir Putin.
Two squadrons of F-35 As are expected to touch down soon at 1,800-acre RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, the Telegraph reports.
They are designed to carry nuclear weapons and carry out tactical nuclear bombing.
Their expected arrival follows the US Air Force asking the country’s Congress to approve a £40million, 144-bed dormitory at the Suffolk base.
Budget documents say this would “house the increase in enlisted personnel as the result of the potential Surety Mission”.
“Surety” is a term often used by the US government to refer to keeping nuclear weapons safe and secure.
The developments come as Britain has a new defence secretary, with prime minister Rishi Sunak this morning appointing Grant Shapps as Ben Wallace‘s replacement.
Anti-nuclear campaign group CND has warned allowing nuclear weapons back at Lakenheath for the first time since 2008 would be “beyond irresponsible”.
Yet others have welcomed the mooted move, though both the Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon have refused to confirm.
Some 6,000 people work at RAF Lakenheath, home to the US Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing.
Control of the base, built in 1940, was transferred from the RAF to USAF in 1948 and nuclear weapons were first moved there six years later.
RAF Lakenheath had shelters with the capacity to store as many as 110 air-launched B61 nuclear bombs, but all were removed in 2008.
Building work on the proposed new US dorm is scheduled to start in 2024 and last for two years, with nuclear weapons potentially arriving afterwards.
And a defence source was quoted by the Telegraph as saying 54 F-35s would be sent over from the US either this year or next.
They would replace older F-15s presently at the airbase, which can also carry nuclear weapons but are less advanced.
Mr Putin has threatened to unleash Russia’s nuclear weapons as he continues to wage war in Ukraine following his country’s invasion of its neighbour in February last year.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain and Nato’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, said: “If the US is putting nukes in the UK, it’s a message to Russia that they are serious.
“We we are now in a position where a tyrant in an unstable country is threatening to use nuclear weapons and the only way to stop them is to make them see they will get it back in spades.”
RAF Lakenheath is in the West Suffolk constituency of former health secretary Matt Hancock, who welcomed the “potential expansion”.
He added that Britain must stand “shoulder to shoulder” with US allies “especially in the face of Putin’s menacing aggression”.
But CND general secretary Kate Hudson said the move would be “beyond irresponsible” and make Britain “a target in a nuclear conflict”, the BBC reported.
The MoD said: “It remains a long-standing UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”
Nuclear-capable F-15 jets took off from RAF Lakenheath last October as part of NATO aircraft drills simulating strikes.
