Washington. October 27th. INTERFAX - The United States plans to begin deploying new B61-12 guided nuclear bombs in Europe by the end of this year, Politico reported, citing American diplomatic sources.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, the United States has completed the development of a new guided nuclear bomb B61-12 and started their full-scale production.
Their placement in Europe was previously planned to begin at the end of 2023 or in 2024.
A total of 480 such bombs will be manufactured. In particular, they will have to replace the outdated version of the B61, 100 units of which are stationed at six air bases in Europe and Turkey.
The B61-12 aerial bomb has the same power as the previous model - 0.3, 1.5, 10 or 50 kilotons. The peculiarity of the new aerial bomb is the tail. It makes the bomb controllable and more accurate, which makes it possible not to lower it with a parachute, but to drop a charge from an airplane flying at high altitude, after which the bomb autonomously plans towards the target for many kilometers, if necessary, "steering" to it.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, currently 15 nuclear bombs are placed at the air bases in Buchel in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), Klein-Brogel (Belgium), Volkel (Netherlands) and Gedi (Italy) and 20 bombs at the air bases Aviano (Italy) and Incirlik (Turkey). All storage facilities are under the control of the US military.
