DThe USA wants to station nuclear weapons in Great Britain again. The British newspaper “The Telegraph” reported this on Friday evening, citing Pentagon documents. The warheads are to be stored at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath facility in Suffolk. According to the report, they are said to be three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
In 2008, the US withdrew its nuclear bombs from Lakenheath after the threat from Russia appeared less severe. The planned deployment again is probably related to reports that the British army is not ready for a military confrontation with Russia.
London has so far kept a low profile on the matter. A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense is quoted in the report as saying: “It remains a long-standing tradition of the United Kingdom and NATO not to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons at any given location.”
In order to deter Russia, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, called for the introduction of compulsory military service in Great Britain on Wednesday. A statement from the Ministry of Defense said that the British military “has a proud tradition as a volunteer army, there are no considerations whatsoever to return to compulsory military service.”