US could again hold nuclear weapons on British soil
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The United States could again station nuclear weapons on British soil, official documents suggest, after the US Air Force (USAF) secured funding for a new facility in Suffolk.
Congress received a budgetary request for $50 million (£39.5 million) from the USAF for a “surety dormitory” at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk where 110 US nuclear bombs were stored until 2008.
The term “surety” is used in US military parlance to refer to nuclear weapons.
Last year’s budget referred to a Nato project to build “secure sites and facilities” to store “special weapons” in a number of Western countries, including Britain, but made no reference to the base itself.
This year’s report says the money will be used in Britain to “house the increase in enlisted personnel as the result of the potential surety mission”.
RAF Lakenheath was chosen as one of three sites for US nuclear weapons at the height of the Cold War in 1954.
But they were removed in 2008 after the prospect of nuclear war was reduced.
The site was the subject of mass demonstrations against the weapons, including by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
The US does not generally comment on the location of its nuclear weapons and did not officially acknowledge its withdrawal from Britain.
But the removal of the bombs was noted by the Federation of American Scientists which monitors US nuclear activity.
The same organisation pointed to the inclusion of RAF Lakenheath in this year’s USAF budget as evidence nuclear weapons have returned to Britain.
RAF Lakenheath’s position near England’s east coast has given it strategic importance for the US. The base was the first in Europe to receive delivery of new F35A fighter jets in December 2021.
