UK to buy 12 fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons

The United Kingdom is set to purchase at least twelve American F-35A fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons. According to The Guardian, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer made the announcement on Wednesday at the NATO summit. Starmer described this as “the biggest strengthening of Britain's nuclear position in a generation”.

The aircraft in question are F-35A fighter jets, which will be stationed at an air base in Norfolk. As well as conventional weapons, the aircraft can be equipped with American nuclear bombs that are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs that the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Authorisation to use these weapons is required from the British Prime Minister, the American President, and NATO's Nuclear Planning Group.

The new jets would be based at the Marham airbase, with the acquisition of the planes expected to support 20,000 jobs in the UK, as 15 per cent of the global supply chain for the jets is based in the country.

Source: commonspace.eu with The Guardian and agencies

Related articles

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)