Amerikaanse 'nuke' mogelijk beschadigd op vliegbasis Volkel?

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US nuclear bomb may have been damaged in accident at Dutch base, report says
Federation of American Scientists discovers photograph of B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers

One of the US nuclear bombs stored at a Dutch air base may have been damaged in a recent accident, according to a report published on Monday, which comes at a time when a new generation of the weapons are due to arrive on the continent.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) discovered a photograph of a B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers, including two from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, and a civilian. The rear of the bomb appears to have been twisted by an impact and one of the tail fins is missing. There is pink sticky tape covering an apparent hole.

A FAS report on Monday said the picture was included in a 2022 presentation for student job applicants by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one of the country’s nuclear weapons facilities, and it geolocated the image to the Volkel air force base in the Netherlands, one of six bases in five European countries where a total of 100 B61 nuclear gravity bombs are currently stored as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement with the US.

“It must be emphasized up front that there is no official confirmation that the image was taken at Volkel AB, that the bent B61 shape is a real weapon (versus a trainer), or that the damage was the result of an accident (versus a training simulation),” wrote Hans Kristensen, the report’s author and the director of the FAS nuclear information project. “If the image is indeed from a nuclear weapons event, it would constitute the first documented case of a recent nuclear weapons accident at an airbase in Europe.”

Any damage to a nuclear weapon is known as a “bent spear” incident, and generally kept secret. A spokesperson for the US air force in Europe would not comment directly on the photograph, but said: “The US maintains the highest level of standards for personnel and equipment supporting the strategic arsenal, which includes routine training, maintenance, and security activities, to safeguard America’s critical capabilities.”

“It is US policy [that] we can neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any general or specific location, including specific exercise or real-world operations,” the spokesperson said.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory said in an emailed statement: “No additional information is available for that photo.

The B61 bomb is the only tactical nuclear weapon left in the US arsenal, and 100 of them are stored in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Turkey”

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Op maandag 3 april 2023 14:47 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

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Misschien ergens mee tegenaan gebotst terwijl ze de bom vervoerden?

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Op maandag 3 april 2023 14:57 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

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Gokje: Die dingen moeten ook onderhouden worden. Dus je haalt je bom uit de opslag om hem naar de onderhoudsplek te rijden en vice versa.