Germany sends three Tornado jets from Buechel to NATO nuclear drill in Italy
NATO's annual nuclear deterrence exercise Steadfast Noon starts Tuesday. Germany is moving three Tornado jets to Aviano; only dummy bombs without warheads are used.
Archive image · Photo: Alf van Beem / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
Germany's air force will take part in NATO's annual nuclear exercise Steadfast Noon in the coming days, with the drill starting on Tuesday, according to the dpa news agency. Three Tornado fighter jets from Tactical Air Wing 33 are being moved from Buechel air base in Rhineland-Palatinate to Aviano air base in northern Italy. U.S. nuclear weapons are reportedly stored at Buechel, though this has never been officially confirmed; under NATO nuclear sharing, German jets could deliver them in an emergency.
The scenario and details of the exercise are classified, and only dummy bombs without nuclear warheads are used. According to NATO, the drills include moving weapons from underground vaults to aircraft and mounting them under the jets. The scale is expected to match last year's exercise, which involved about 2,000 personnel and more than 70 aircraft, including F-35 fighters as well as surveillance and tanker planes.
NATO stresses that the exercise is not aimed at any country and is unrelated to current events. However, the alliance's threat assessment focuses mainly on Russia, which was recently accused of nuclear saber-rattling. Last year Moscow held its own strategic nuclear exercise at the same time; there was no initial Russian reaction to this year's drill.