{"id":40004,"date":"2025-02-28T19:52:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/02\/28\/us-might-be-gearing-up-for-uk-based-nuclear-program-report-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:22:12","slug":"us-might-be-gearing-up-for-uk-based-nuclear-program-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2025\/02\/28\/us-might-be-gearing-up-for-uk-based-nuclear-program-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US might be gearing up for UK-based nuclear program, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States appears to be poised to reassert its nuclear footprint in the United Kingdom after nearly two decades of inactivity, according to a new watchdog report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Federation of American Scientists published a report Wednesday compiling evidence it says strongly suggests the U.S. Air Force is planning to bring nuclear weapons back to Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath, England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven without weapons present, the addition of a large nuclear air base in northern Europe is a significant new development that would have been inconceivable just a decade-and-a-half ago,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federation, founded in 1945 by scientists who built the first Manhattan Project atomic bombs, is an independent organization that coalesces scientists and policy influencers to monitor and reduce future nuclear threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists with the organization were tipped off that nuclear weapons might be returning to the United Kingdom after they combed through a fiscal 2023 NATO Security Investment Program document put together by President Joe Biden\u2019s administration in April 2022. The federation discovered the United Kingdom was listed as a country set to receive upgrades to their \u201cspecial weapons\u201d storage site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakenheath is the only base with the proper infrastructure to support a nuclear weapons program, thus identifying it as the source of the potential renaissance, the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federation pointed to recent developments in international affairs as a potential catalyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe change appears to be a direct reaction to the worsening political and military relations with Russia, resulting from its invasions in 2014 and 2022 of Ukraine, frequent nuclear warnings, and Russian deployment of increasingly capable long-range conventional weapons,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As proof of the potential program, the federation cited a U.S. Air Force budget document it first reported on in 2023, which described the addition of a dormitory at RAF Lakenheath to support an influx of new airmen arriving because of a \u201cpotential Surety Mission.\u201d Surety refers to the security of a nuclear weapon, the report clarified.<\/p>\n\n\n\t