The bombs worrying American officials most are stored at an air base not far from the Syrian border
no nuclear weapons. It renounced the very idea when it reunified in 1990. But if war were to break out in Europe today, German pilots could clamber into German planes, take off from Büchel Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate and drop nuclear bombs on Russian troops.’s nuclear-sharing scheme, under which America quietly stations nuclear bombs across five countries in Europe. The arrangement is decades old.
The bombs that most worry American officials are stored in vaults at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, a few hours by road from the Syrian border. During a military coup in 1960 and a diplomatic spat in 1975, America considered removing the bombs. During the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, Incirlik hosted the refuelling tankers that allowed renegade-16 fighter planes to threaten Istanbul and Ankara.
That prompted alarm in Washington about the security of its weapons and the risk that they could become hostages in the strained relationship with Turkey. Senior officers were sent to Incirlik, only to conclude that the bombs did not need to be removed. The warheads can be armed only by a code, and the vaults are automatically sealed if power is cut off, giving American forces time to fight their way onto the base if required.
Nukes were taken out of Greece in 2001 and from Ramstein air base in Germany in 2005. Pulling bombs out of Incirlik would remove vulnerable targets and implicit leverage. But if done clumsily it could worsen the diplomatic crisis and even prompt Mr Erdogan to pursue a nuclear-weapons programme of his own, something he hinted at in September. It would also restart a fraught debate over the presence ofOpposition to nuclear-sharing has been simmering in Germany, in particular.
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