There’s been some discussion on the threads about this, but I figured that a post might be helpful.
The United States has maintained 50 nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey for some time. Since the attempted coup of 2016, when Incirlik was inaccessible for some time, there have been calls to remove those weapons. Having those weapons based so close to Russia is also a sore point in Russian relations. I won’t go into the full back and forth about Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons; just that there is a reasonable argument that these weapons aren’t that useful to the US.
Hans Kristensen, who keeps track of nuclear weapons around the world for the Federation of American Scientists, has summarized what we know about those nuclear weapons and what might be done to remove them.
Today President Trump essentially confirmed that nuclear weapons are stored at Incirlik. It wasn’t a clearcut statement, but how he answered a reporter’s question.
btw..
Trump just became the first US official to confirm the presence of 50 US nuclear bombs based
in Turkey. "We're very confident" they're safe, he told reporters, via WH PoolUS and Nato officials never talk about nuclear deployments abroad.
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) October 16, 2019
There’s a reasonable caution to that –
Here’s my caution: If you asked Trump about the 50 nuclear weapons stored in Mianus, CT he would tell you that “Mianus is great and powerful and perfect place to store them.”
He’s just not that smart. https://t.co/nDdebugemb— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) October 16, 2019
Here’s a thread on some of the issues surrounding removing the nukes. Hint: conferring with NATO is required, but lots of things like that are going by the board these days.
2/n
First off, we are now (still) in a double bind as @nktpnd points out:
Leave a couple dozen nuclear weapons in Turkey where things are going to shit alliance wise…
…or pull them out, deal with vulnerability during transport, & admit that Turkey is not our friend. pic.twitter.com/hjm9u4gxUe
— Martin “Pu & gravy” Pfeiffer (⧖) ?️? (@NuclearAnthro) October 14, 2019
4/n
One not-ideal option that doesn’t involve physical transfer would be to disable the B61-3. -4 nukes in Turkey non-violently through Command Disable:https://t.co/GatAPrZAEd
— Martin “Pu & gravy” Pfeiffer (⧖) ?️? (@NuclearAnthro) October 14, 2019
Leto linked to the Wikipedia article that describes the vaults in which they are stored (top photo; caption: Weapons Storage and Security System vault in raised position holding a B61 nuclear bomb. ). Turkey would have to get the vaults open and then figure out the permissive action links (which require a code or somesuch to allow the weapon to work) in order to use the weapons. This is not impossible but would take some time.
Questions? Open thread
There Are 50 American Nuclear Weapons At The Incirlik Air BasePost + Comments (69)