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US N-strategy calls for outsourcing strikes

* Study says nuclear warheads will be transferred to US non-nuclear allies
* Experts view it as an attempt to skirt international law

WASINGTON: US nuclear strategy calls for outsourcing nuclear strikes, in case of a major conflict in Europe, to NATO allies that do not have such weapons, in what experts view as an attempt to skirt international law, according to an authoritative report made public here.

The study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national security and environmental think-tank, is based mainly on declassified official documents and provides a detailed analysis of the US nuclear arsenal in Europe as well as of doctrines justifying its presence there more than a decade after the end of the Cold War.

But for the first time, the document revealed on Wednesday a specific number of nuclear warheads which, under US and NATO war plans, will be transferred to US non-nuclear allies to be delivered to targets by their warplanes.

If war were to break out in Europe, as many as 180 nuclear bombs would be earmarked for delivery by the air forces of Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany and Italy, the report said.

The weapons are part of a 480-warhead nuclear arsenal the United States kept in Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The arsenal, according to the study, is being kept at eight air force bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Britain.

Plans call for the remaining 300 weapons to stay in US hands and to be delivered by US F-15s and F-16s fighter jets, the report said. The arrangement, the council insists, “skirts international law” because the Nonproliferation Treaty prohibits a nuclear state from transferring nuclear weapons to a non-weapon state, and prohibits a non-nuclear state from receiving such weapons.

The research organization dismisses the argument that if war breaks out, the Nonproliferation Treaty would no longer apply.

It argues that preparations for delivering the 180 nuclear bombs are taking place in peacetime, and “equipping non-nuclear countries with the means to conduct nuclear warfare is inconsistent with today’s international efforts to dissuade other countries from obtaining nuclear weapons.”

“If China deployed nuclear bombs in North Korea, equipped North Korean aircraft with mechanical and electronic devices to deliver the weapons, and trained North Korean pilots to draw up nuclear strike plans, there would be hell to pay, and rightly so,” said Hans Kristensen, the author of the report. “Yet that is precisely what the United States is doing in Europe.” The Defense Department declined to comment on the report, citing its longstanding policy of not publicly discussing deployments of nuclear weapons.

The report also sheds light on a secret 1994 US Air Force document that lists 15 nuclear bombing ranges scattered all over Europe, including one in Suippes, France, despite the fact that France is not part of NATO’s nuclear command structure. Moreover, it lists one such training range in the North African nation of Tunisia that is not a member of Western military alliance at all.

“It is unclear whether Tunisia knows that Ben Ghilouf is for nuclear training,” the study said.

According to the report, the start of President George W Bush’s first term in office was marked by a quiet withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Greece, a full-fledged NATO ally. In April 2001, US Air Force headquarters in Europe issued a secret order to move 20 nuclear bombs out of Araxos Air Base in Greece to an unknown destination. afp

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