The Pentagon said Monday the U.S. had taken all necessary steps to secure U.S. weapons and munitions at the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, in the wake of Friday’s failed coup attempt and the arrest by local authorities of the Turkish base commander.
The U.S. has a strict policy of neither confirming nor denying the location of nuclear weapons, but arms control advocates claim there are more than four dozen B-61 hydrogen bombs stored at the NATO air base.
A fact sheet put out by the Federation of American Scientists lists 50 bombs stored in 25 secure vaults in Turkey.
At the Pentagon, following protocol, a spokesman refused to comment directly on the status of forward-deployed nuclear weapons, but nevertheless offered assurance any U.S. nukes were secure.
“As a matter of policy we don’t discuss our strategic assets,” said Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook when questioned about the status of the nuclear weapons. “But you also know the kind of thought and care that we put into safely securing every part of the U.S. military, and we are going to continue to do that.”
Non-proliferation experts agree the weapons are in no danger of falling into the wrong hands, but argue the coup attempt in Turkey should be a wake-up call.
“We’ve had terrorists in Belgium conducting operations just miles away from the 20 nuclear weapons stored at a base outside Brussels. Now, turmoil in Turkey, including a coup plotter operating from the air base where we store 50 nuclear bombs,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a group that advocates for deep cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
“How many warnings do we need before we decide it is too dangerous to keep these weapons forward deployed in Europe?” Cirincione said. “These weapons have outlived their mission, outlived the war with the Soviets they were intended to fight. It’s time to bring them home before we lose one.”
Cook said the U.S. has taken “the prudent steps that need to be taken, to ensure its people, its facilities and its weapons are protected and in the safest place possible.”
