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Rhineland-Palatinate: Luftwaffe wants to station all new F

2022-06-11T12:44:00.038Z


US nuclear weapons are said to be stored in Büchel near the Moselle. All F-35 stealth jets that the Bundeswehr wants to buy are now to be housed there – also for so-called nuclear sharing.


Enlarge image

A US Air Force F-35 flies over the Eifel

Photo: Harald Tittel / dpa

The Bundeswehr wants to bring all of its future F-35 stealth jets to a Rhineland-Palatinate military airfield near the Moselle.

"The Air Force is planning to station all 35 F-35 A to be procured at Büchel Air Base after the construction work has progressed/completed," said a spokesman for the Federal Office for Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Services of the Bundeswehr in Bonn.

The F-35 is considered the most modern combat aircraft in the world and is also purchased for Germany's so-called nuclear sharing.

This is a NATO deterrent concept that gives allies access to US nuclear bombs.

According to unconfirmed information, the last of these weapons in Germany are in special bunkers in Büchel.

In an emergency, they should therefore be dropped by fighter jets of the German armed forces.

The F-35 from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin is to be procured as the successor model to the Tornado fleet introduced a good 40 years ago as part of the German Armed Forces' EUR 100 billion special program.

According to the spokesman for the Federal Office, the planned complete renovation of the runway at the Büchel military airfield near Cochem on the Moselle is expected to be completed in February 2026.

"Further construction work will continue until at least 2028, but this will not further restrict flight operations," he added.

Total expenditure is estimated at around 170 million euros.

More than one million euros per kilometer of fence

To protect against opponents of nuclear weapons, the air force base in Büchel has already received a new 11.5-kilometer-long outer fence, including a post path, according to the spokesman.

Its technical monitoring is currently being planned.

»The costs of the construction work carried out so far amount to around 18 million euros«.

This means that every kilometer of fence costs more than one million euros.

Again and again, demonstrators had previously overcome the old, simpler fence and traded lawsuits for trespassing.

Opponents of nuclear weapons, for example from the International Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (ICAN), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, have announced another week of protests in Büchel for July 5-10, 2022.

They declared: »With the Ukraine war, the fear of a nuclear war is growing.« From 2023 onwards »new US nuclear weapons are expected to be stationed in Germany«.

wbr/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-06-11

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