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In advance of a National Day of Action (23 September) called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to protest against the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain, the Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities has written to the Foreign and Defence Secretaries calling on them to refuse the United States authorities permission to base B61-12 guided nuclear bombs at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
US nuclear weapons were based in the UK from 1954 until 2008, with Thor missiles operated by the RAF with United States Air Force weapon controllers, US Navy Polaris-armed submarines in Holy Loch, and most infamously the Cruise missiles deployed at US air bases in East Anglia. The last nuclear weapons – one hundred and ten B61 gravity bombs – were withdrawn from Lakenheath in 2008, after decades of sustained protests from British peace activists, particularly the women of Greenham Common.
Now Councillor Lawrence O’Neill has written to the Foreign Secretary James Cleverley and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in the belief that going back to the nuclear standoff of the Cold War through stockpiling B61-12 nuclear weapons at Lakenheath will ‘paint a great big target’ on the base and invite a nuclear, rather a conventional attack, should the febrile tension between NATO and Russia over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine break out into a full-on military confrontation.
He is also concerned that there could be a future accident at the base involving the risk of an explosion involving such a weapon – for there were accidents in 1956 and 1961 in which military aircraft were destroyed with near disasters involving nuclear weapons with an explosive yield up to ten times that of the Little Boy device which devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945.
Commenting, Councillor O’Neill said: “The current situation is a repeat of the dark days of the 1980s, when at the height of the Cold War, Prime Minister Thatcher invited President Ronald Reagan to send over cruise missiles, making the whole of Eastern England a target inviting Soviet attack. The situation then was best summarised in the painting by Peter Kennard, who in an interpretation of John Constable’s Haywain, depicted the cart in the idyllic countryside of Suffolk festooned with an unwanted and out-of-place cargo of three cruise missiles.
“The NFLAs want to see no repeat of that – a situation in which Suffolk could be turned into a nuclear wasteland. Instead we have urged Ministers to arrest any future redeployment of US nuclear weapons by refusing them permission to deploy in Constable’s country.”
In addition to the letter to Ministers, the NFLAs have also send a letter outlining their concerns about nuclear accidents to the Suffolk Resilience Forum and the Ministry of Defence, and also to Tom Unterrainer, Chair, and Dr Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament wishing them success with their planned Day of Action.
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For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes to Editors
The letter to the two Secretaries of State dated 18 September reads:
UK & Ireland NFLA Secretariat
Nuclear Policy Section,
City Policy
Manchester City Council
Level 6, Town Hall Extension,
Library Walk, Manchester, M60 2LA
Chair: Councillor Lawrence O’Neill Secretary: Richard Outram
Tel: 07583 097793
Email: richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Website: https://www.nuclearpolicy.info
The Rt. Hon. James Cleverley MP,
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs,
C/o FCDO Ministerial Correspondence Unit
fcdo.correspondence@fcdo.gov.uk
The Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps MP,
Secretary of State for Defence
C/o The MOD Ministerial Correspondence Unit
parlibranch-treat-official@mod.gov.uk
18 September 2023
Dear Secretaries of State,
Time to arrest the deployment of nuclear weapons in Constable’s County
As Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, I wanted to convey to you the objections of our members to any future redeployment of United States nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath and to call upon you to refuse permission to the US Government and Military to do so.
Like Mildenhall, Lakenheath is in fact only notionally an RAF base. The base website describes it as ‘the largest U.S. Air Force-operated base in England’ with 4,000 military personnel.
US nuclear weapons were in Britain from 1954 until 2008. It is quite clear from evidence unveiled by the Federation of American Scientists that the United States appears intent to locate nuclear bombs once again at Lakenheath, with significant recent and projected investment in facilities and a new accommodation block capable to housing 144 personnel to reassert a ‘surety mission’, Pentagon code for its intention to store B61-12 guided bombs for operational deployment on the two F35-A ‘nuclear capable’ fighter-bomber squadrons based there.
Work is scheduled for completion by 2026, but as there are already on-site storage facilities for up to 132 weapons, it is uncertain when deployment may begin.
As elected members in local authorities, we are aware of our responsibilities for emergency planning and public health, and being representatives from Nuclear Free Local Authorities are especially conscious of the immense damage to infrastructure and loss of civilian loss that would result from any nuclear explosion on UK soil, whether deliberately or accidentally.
The United States in carrying out a redeployment will be displaying the rankest hypocrisy, as will the United Kingdom if it endorses it through its complicity. The two NATO allies were co-signatories to a statement issued following the recent NATO Summit condemning Russia and Belarus for their agreement to return Russian nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus under Russian control, but how is this different to returning US nuclear weapons to the territory of Great Britain under American control?
In both instances, the actions of the respective parties are contrary to the commitment they each made under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty to seek in ‘good faith’ to secure nuclear disarmament for the world, and, in the current febrile international climate, with NATO and Russia daggers drawn over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, will make nuclear war – with all its terrible consequences – more, not less, likely.
Worse still, we believe the United States to be the greater transgressor as this is not the only arrangement for ‘hosting’ that the US is engaged in, with nuclear weapons similarly stockpiled under American control in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Turkey for deployment on the air forces of those countries should war begin.
Aside from ‘painting a great big target’ on the Lakenheath base inviting a nuclear, rather than conventional, strike in the event of open hostilities with Russia, the NFLAs also have real concerns that there might be a peacetime accident involving a B61-12 bomb at the base and that such an accident could be serious and might be catastrophic. This is no idle threat as when it comes to Lakenheath and accidents involving US nuclear weapons there is history.
In July 1956 and January 1961, two US military aircraft were destroyed in accidents at the base which involved the possible detonation of nuclear weapons, each with between five and ten times the explosive power of the Hiroshima ‘Little Boy’ device; after the first a USAF officer described the near disaster as averted only by a combination of ‘tremendous heroism, good fortune, and the will of God’.
It is therefore not inconceivable that an accident could occur in the future involving a transport aircraft bringing these weapons to the UK or a nuclear armed F-35 in flight or on the ground.
The B61-12 has a yield that can be up to 50 KT. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has published data describing the impact of a 50 KT ground and airburst. At 1.1 kilometres the impact of a ground burst is described thus: ‘Most people are killed’, at 1.7 kms ‘Most buildings collapse. Injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread’, and at 2.3 kms ‘Residential structures collapse. Serious injuries are common, fatalities may occur’. These effects are similar with airbursts, but at slightly greater distances. This ignores the further impact of fire and radiation that follows such an event. And of course, should such an incident occur, unlike a missile strike, there would be no ‘three-minute warning’ so the populace would have no time to find shelter.
This of course is the most extreme scenario. More likely would be the possibility of a fire and the probability of conventional explosives in the device detonating leading to the release of radioactive materials. These might be carried some distance by the prevailing wind.
Secretaries of State, it is time to arrest the deployment of nuclear weapons in Constable’s County. Accordingly, we urge you to refuse permission to locate United States nuclear weapons at Lakenheath or elsewhere on British soil – for the sake of the people of Suffolk and of the United Kingdom.
Thank you kindly for giving this letter your consideration. I very much look forward to your reply. Please respond by email to the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Lawrence O’Neill,
Chair, UK / Ireland NFLA Steering Committee
