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May 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The B61 atomic weapons is the last remnant of the Cold War in Germany. Up to 20 of the atomic bombs are believed to be in storage at a German Air Force base in Büchel, a village in the Eifel Mountains of western Germany. In case of a war, the Tornado aircraft belonging to the German Air Force would be immediately armed with the bombs for attack sorties under US command, German-based Spiegel Online reported Wednesday.
However, the fact that such war is considered highly remote has not kept the US military from taking on the measure to refurbish the stockpile as well as most of its other atomic arsenal. The Life Extension Program (LEP) for the B61, between 160 and 200 of which are based in Europe, is projected by experts to be the most difficult and the costliest of all other weapon systems.
The US Department of Energy requested nearly $2 billion over four years for the project in 2010. The figure later climbed to $4 billion and is currently estimated by independent experts at $6 billion.
Yet, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is responsible for the weapon upgrades, has hinted an even higher cost for the project, according to the report
Aside from the high upgrading cost, experts have also voiced concerns with the sheer extent of the B61 refurbishment program. The NNSA, says the report, “wants to revamp old components, install new safety mechanisms and detonators and make improvements to the design all at the same time.”
Such a comprehensive revamping effort has never been carried out before, according to the Union of Concerned Scientist (UCS), an organization that opposes nuclear weapons. The group also cautions that some of the new parts such as detonators have not been adequately evaluated. “The multi-point safety and new detonators are unproven, immature technologies,” UCS experts Nickolas Roth and Stephen Young stated on the group’s website.
Moreover, experts believe that the project, should it succeed despite its high costs and technical hurdles, would not be merely limited to extending the lifespan of the atomic weapons but would, in effect, be tantamount to making a new weapon from scratch.
Should the improved version of the B61 weapons be redeployed to European bases by 2019, as planned, they “will in essence be a strategic bomb,” says an expert with Federation of American Scientist, Hans Kristensen. “They will be able to hold at risk targets that the weapons in Europe currently cannot hold at risk.”
Tactical atomic weapons such as the B61 are designed to be deployed against enemy soldiers on the battlefield, according to the report. They are potentially much less powerful than strategic nuclear weapons, which can be deployed to neutralize the nuclear arsenal of an enemy nation or even destroy entire cities. The modernized B61, Kristensen fears, would change from being a tactical weapon to a strategic one.
The B61 modernization program, says the report, envisions modifying four existing bomb models (or “mods”) — the 3, 4, 7 and 10 — into one, the B61 Mod. 12. An important new feature is a new tail kit with controllable flaps. The new system would dramatically increase the bomb’s precision.
Furthermore, according to the report, the modernized B61-12 will be able to carry four different warheads, which range in strength from 0.3 to 45 kilotons of TNT. In comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II had a strength of 15 kilotons. “This weapon can do the same amount of damage militarily as the very high-yield weapon attached to the B61-7,” says Kristensen.
The B61-12, experts say, would also greatly hinder negotiations on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and would put an end to efforts to withdraw all atomic weapons from Europe.
Meanwhile, US-based Arms Control Association Director Kimball says it is “tragic that the B61s based in Europe are irrelevant to NATO’s defense.” He insists that the destructive capability of the weapon is so massive that it makes their use incredible. “Neither US nor European taxpayers should be asked to waste more money to upgrade the system.”
The reported American plan to upgrade its vast array of atomic arsenal in Europe comes as the US has led a major international campaign against Iran’s nuclear energy program, on the unverified basis that it may be seeking to weaponize its nuclear technology, an accusation that Tehran has strongly denied.
The Islamic Republic, meanwhile, has repeatedly called for the global abolishment of all nuclear weapons.
MFB/MA
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