{"id":1095286,"date":"2026-07-17T17:46:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1095286\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:46:26","slug":"britains-preparation-for-f-35a-deployment-risks-pre-emptive-nuclear-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1095286\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain&#8217;s preparation for F-35A deployment risks pre-emptive nuclear attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Global Air &amp; Space Chiefs\u2019 Conference in London, Air Vice-Marshal Jim Beck, who is the RAF\u2019s director of capability &amp; programmes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/defence\/2026\/07\/uk-royal-air-force-studying-total-future-fleet-size-for-nuclear-capable-f-35a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">claimed<\/a> the decision to purchase the F-35A was \u201cone of the most important moves we have made as the RAF for a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are doing the analysis to understand the size and posture of the force that we will need to undertake it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mission is very specific \u2013 it is to reintegrate the Royal Air Force into NATO\u2019s nuclear burden-sharing framework.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The F-35A fighter jets are designed to launch a new generation of US nuclear bomb \u2013 the B61-12 \u2013 now stationed at NATO bases across Europe, including at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Willingness to carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The F-35A deal is just the latest in Britain\u2019s move towards a war-fighting nuclear posture. Alongside the increase by 40% of Britain\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/2026\/07\/is-london-shifting-from-nuclear-deterrence-to-war-fighting\/#post-heading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">this article<\/a> in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists argues, \u201c[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.\u201d The authors argue that this \u201cpaves the way for further proliferation of these weapons throughout Europe, cements the normalization of nuclear weapons\u2026\u201d It concludes: \u201c[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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:<\/strong><br \/><strong>\u201cThe 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the MoD is beginning preparations to purchase from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1095287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[84678,748,269687,393,67579,299002,4884,2821,1144,299003,229858,712,299004,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1095286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-b61-12","tag-britain","tag-defence-investment-plan","tag-england","tag-f-35a","tag-global-air-space-chiefs-conference","tag-great-britain","tag-nato","tag-northern-ireland","tag-raf-lakenheath","tag-raf-marham","tag-scotland","tag-stop-british-nuke-jets","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116936572043121240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1095287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}