6/14/2023 0 Comments Security growler![]() Pressure has been building on Germany to continue the nuclear-sharing mission. The minister later denied that a decision had been made, at least officially. ![]() The report caused an uproar because the Parliament had not been informed or agreed. In 2020, Der Spiegel reported that the German defense minister had informed the Pentagon that Germany intended to buy the F/A-18 to replace the current Tornados (PA-200) in the “nuclear-sharing” strike mission. There is a lot of opposition in Germany to nuclear weapons and the question of whether to continue participation in the nuclear-sharing mission is politically sensitive. Instead, the appearance of the F/A-18F in the NNSA fact sheet probably reflected preparations to support Germany’s anticipated purchase the aircraft for its nuclear mission, and that the fact sheet was likely corrected because the German government has not publicly announced its selection of the F/A-18 (and the Parliament has not yet agreed to pay for it). The image shows B61 (left) and B43 nuclear bomb trainers on the deck of USS America (CV-66) during the 1991 Gulf War. The carriers were denuclearized by the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review, the Navy does not want nukes back on them, but it would in any case probably have been the F-35C – not the F/A-18F.į/A-18 aircraft (background) used to be tasked with delivering nuclear bombs from aircraft carriers. One of the ideas proposed was reintroducing nuclear weapons on the aircraft carriers, an idea pushed by some former officials. Doing so would violate the 1992 Presidential Nuclear Initiative. The W76-2 is already deployed, and the Biden administration’s NPR is currently considering whether to continue the SLCM-N. The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) considered many new nuclear weapons, but only two made it into the public version of the document as “nuclear supplements”: the low-yield W76-2 Trident warhead and the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N). Update: DOD said “there is not a requirement for the F/A-18F to be certified to carry the B61-12.” I have also asked the Defense Department, but it has not responded yet. But after coordinating with the Defense Department, NNSA asked me to ignore that explanation saying the listing of the F/A-18 in the fact sheet was a mistake. In response to questions from me, NNSA initially said neither of those were the reason for including the F/A-18F in the fact sheet. Navy was planning to reintroduce nuclear capability on aircraft carriers (unlikely). It could potentially indicate anticipated sale to Germany to replace its aging Tornado aircraft in the “nuclear sharing” strike mission, or that the U.S. The reason for including the F/A-18F was not stated. NNSA in 2021 added, and then deleted, the F/A-18F Super Hornet from its B61-12 nuclear bomb fact sheet. ![]()
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