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Air Force mum on nuclear bombs at Ramstein

Maybe they’re gone or maybe they’re not.

Officials with U.S. Air Forces Europe simply will not say whether the Air Force removed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, up to 90 nuclear bombs, as was reported July 9 by the Federation of American Scientists.

“On issues associated with nuclear weapons, we follow the longstanding Air Force policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any specific location,” Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jesse W. Hall III said in an e-mail to Air Force Times.

Hans Kristensen, director for FAS’ Nuclear Information Project, said the removal of the bombs was evidenced by Ramstein not showing up in the latest list of European nuclear weapons sites to be inspected. The list is published by USAFE, according to Kristensen, and in the past has been a valid indicator of weapons removal.

“We could see [this] as the drawdown happened from the Cold War,” he said July 10. “We could see bases dropped off the list of those locations that had nuclear weapons inspections.”

In 2003 the Air Force removed 20 nuclear bombs from Memmingen Air Base, Germany, when it closed. Two years earlier it removed 20 from a Greek air base after that country pulled out of NATO’s nuclear strike mission, according to Kristensen’s report.

If the FAS report is correct, the number of American nuclear bombs currently stored in Europe is 350, down from 7,300 in 1971.

Kristensen said the last inspection list came out in 2005 and that, as far as he knows, there is no policy on how often it is published. The new list is included in an unclassified instruction called Nuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visit and Functional Expert Visit Program Management, which USAFE published in January, he said.

USAFE bases that still have nuclear arms are RAF Lakenheath, England; Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; and Aviano Air Base, Italy, the federation believes.