U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS SITES IN EUROPE REVEALED
U.S. soldiers have mistakenly revealed the exact locations of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe by uploading details as part of revision exercises that were publicly available to view, a report claims.
An investigation by the British investigative journalism website Bellingcat alleges that soldiers attempting to learn intricate security protocols uploaded sensitive information to the internet, including not only the bases where the weapons are held, but in which exact vaults they are stored.
The U.S. air force said it has launched an investigation into “the suitability of information shared via study flash cards.”
Questions and answers were written on flash cards, which have now disappeared, and appeared to show the positions of cameras, the frequency of patrols around the vaults, secret “duress” words that signal when a guard is being threatened and the unique identifiers that a restricted area badge needs to have, Bellingcat said.
The cards had been uploaded as long ago as 2013 on websites including Cram, Quizlet and Chegg, and accessed as recently as April this year.
The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe acted as a deterrent to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and also meant European countries would not need to develop their own.
Various leaked documents have indicated that the U.S. uses six sites.
In 2019, a document, written for the defence and security committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, made passing reference to the 150 U.S. nuclear weapons stored in Europe. “These bombs are stored at six US and European bases — Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Buchel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey,” according to Belgian newspaper De Morgen.
The Bellingcat report features screenshots of flash cards indicating that soldiers are taught what to shout to an intruder in the local language. One card relating to the 701st Munitions Maintenance Squadron shows a phrase to make someone surrender weapons in Flemish, indicating that the security details in it apply to Kleine Brogel airbase, Belgium.
There was also reference to a “vault status” flash card that appeared to note which shelters at Volkel contain nuclear weapons. Five were listed as “hot” and six as “cold.”
To further corroborate their story, Bellingcat unearthed a photograph on Facebook posted by someone associated with 703rd MUNSS. It is a large group photo showing more than 50 individuals wearing U.S. military uniforms posing beside a Dutch army vehicle and in front of a nuclear warhead.
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Programme at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, told Bellingcat: “This is yet one more warning that these weapons are not secure.”
The Dutch Ministry of Defence told Bellingcat: “This photo should not have been taken, let alone published.”
Hans Kristenssen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said: “Safety is accomplished by effective security, not secrecy.”