Following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the MoD is beginning preparations to purchase from the US, F-35A nuclear-capable fighter jets which will be deployed in the early 2030s at RAF Marham in Norfolk.

Speaking at the Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, Air Vice-Marshal Jim Beck, who is the RAF’s director of capability & programmes, claimed the decision to purchase the F-35A was “one of the most important moves we have made as the RAF for a generation.”

“We are doing the analysis to understand the size and posture of the force that we will need to undertake it,” he said.

“The mission is very specific – it is to reintegrate the Royal Air Force into NATO’s nuclear burden-sharing framework.”

The F-35A fighter jets are designed to launch a new generation of US nuclear bomb – the B61-12 – now stationed at NATO bases across Europe, including at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Willingness to carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes

The F-35A deal is just the latest in Britain’s move towards a war-fighting nuclear posture. Alongside the increase by 40% of Britain’s nuclear weapons stockpile in 2021, US F-35A nuclear-capable fighter jets started being deployed to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk in December that same year, whilst upgrades to the base, in preparation for the deployment of US B61-12 nuclear bombs, were already underway by 2022.

As this article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists argues, “[t]he deployment of high-precision, variable-yield counter-force weapons signals a willingness to carry out retaliatory or pre-emptive nuclear strikes on an adversary.” The authors argue that this “paves the way for further proliferation of these weapons throughout Europe, cements the normalization of nuclear weapons…” It concludes: “[t]his nuclear brinkmanship, directly pertinent to the Ukraine war, offers the false promise of security for some at the cost of dooming security for all.”

CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:
“The British government is, alongside the US, gearing up to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively in war. Despite the attempts by the government and military officials to downplay it, this is what is really going on. Campaigning against Britain’s nuclear weapons modernisation, the F-35A nuke jet deal, and the deployment of US nuclear bombs at RAF Lakenheath, has never been so crucial and urgent.”