Turkish Air Force getting B61 thermo nukes

[antiair]

NATO nuclear sharing
Main article: Nuclear sharing
As of 2009, Turkey is one of five NATO member states which are part of the nuclear sharing policy of the alliance, together with Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.[2] A total of 90 B61 nuclear bombs are hosted at the Incirlik Air Base, 40 of which are allocated for use by the Turkish Air Force.[3]

I've read this on Wikipedia ( Turkish Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) but i couldn't find any details about it, can anyone give additional info. on this? what are the subtitles of the sharing, can Turkish Air Force use these missiles anytime ect... It's an important sharing but it's shown as a minor detail on wikipedia.

 

[kato]

B61 aren't missiles, they're free-fall bombs to be strapped under F-16 or Tornados.

The partners can not use the weapons unilaterally, got to get the arming codes from the USA first every time. The weapons themselves are also guarded by both sides, with an inner ring of US guards protecting and maintaining the bombs themselves, and the host nation (Turkey, Germany etc) providing an outer ring of further security guards.

The respective host nation airforces train the dropping of these tactical nukes with dummies (at least the German Airforce does).

 

[antiair]

thanks for the response, dummies, interesting, clever though. So about the codes, does US give them out when in need or do you have to have a leverage or something? I mean, last time i checked, the US wouldn't be so easy on such issue... Another question, did we pay for those or is it free due to it's Nato connection?

 

[kato]

The bombs continue to be owned by the USA, the host nations only maintain the "carriers".

The codes are pretty much only given out when the ICBMs have already started flying. And the US personnel will arm the missiles themselves. Pretty much the only thing the host nation does is, once the bomb is loaded onto the aircraft, to fly it to its target and drop it.

 

[antiair]

well then, we can't use them if we go to war, we are doing the dirty job of the US. Thank you very much for taking the time and answering, but i've got one last question, since you're German (i suppose?); why the hell did we accept this, in what way, dropping a nasty bomb helps us?

 

[Waylander]

Turkey, as well as the other nations which share B61s are part of NATO.
If the nukes are already flying I have no problem with us delivering some nukes too.
Since we are under the nuclear ukbrella of the US, UK and France one shouldn't have problems with providing some nuke carriers.

It's not like the US is letting us do the dirty jobs. It's more like they let us take part in dojng the dirty job of delivering some nukes. And they defenitely deliver alot more of them...

 

[kato]

Umm, in war time we're all under NATO command anyway. In any war where any nuclear sharing nation would use nuclear weapons anyway. So any target that would be targeted would be ours too.

Germany started this whole thing by "demanding" nuclear weapons from the US (in 1957/58), or we'd develop nuclear weapons of our own. Simple as that.

 

[antiair]

hmm, ok i get it now, thank you very much again for taking the time...

 

[redkittu]

its all but the US trying to take control in a shrud manner.as they always tried to

 

[Feanor]

I understand you're new here and this is your first post, but you do understand that these bombs were manufactured and delivered by the US right? This isn't the US taking control, this is the US delegating authority within NATO.

 

[redkittu]

I understand you're new here and this is your first post, but you do understand that these bombs were manufactured and delivered by the US right? This isn't the US taking control, this is the US delegating authority within NATO.

hmm, ok i get it now, thank you very much again for taking the time...

 

[Feanor]

No problem.

 

[10ringr]

Antiair

thanks for the response, dummies, interesting, clever though. So about the codes, does US give them out when in need or do you have to have a leverage or something? I mean, last time i checked, the US wouldn't be so easy on such issue... Another question, did we pay for those or is it free due to it's Nato connection?

refer to people on this web site with respect or go elsewhere........ privates

 

[10ringr]

Turkish B61's and Israel

Turkey, as well as the other nations which share B61s are part of NATO.
If the nukes are already flying I have no problem with us delivering some nukes too.
Since we are under the nuclear ukbrella of the US, UK and France one shouldn't have problems with providing some nuke carriers.

It's not like the US is letting us do the dirty jobs. It's more like they let us take part in dojng the dirty job of delivering some nukes. And they defenitely deliver alot more of them...

Any opinion on the tension between Israel and Turkey and the ramifications with both having there hands on nuclear weapons. I realize the Turks would require the codes which are only given by us but?

 

[Waylander]

Seriously, in now way is Turkey going to war with Israel over a couple of dead blockade runners.
That was Erdogan's stunt for his home audience. The Turkish military even stated that this incident will not effect the weapons deals between both countries. Can't be that bad then.

And even if the 0.0001% probability comes true and these two countries go to war with each other the Nukes won't be used.

What can they do anyway?
A couple of air battles, Turkey sinks the majority of Israels sea assets while looses a couple of ships themselves.

That's it. They won't meet halfway in Syria to slug it out and no one would use nukes over this anyway.

 

[umair]

He meant dummy as in ''oh dummies'' for training. Was not pointed towards anyone. And in case if the two do go to blows, Turkey enjoys superiority in naval and land forces and the airforces are more or less equal with Idfaf enjoying the advantage in terms of distance and endurance and fighting close to or over home turf. Things are'nt going to go south though regardless of the illegitimacy of that blockade.

 

[Kraik]

So are these missiles the equivalent of Turkey having nuclear weapons, in the same way Israel does?

 

[Waylander]

If you read the thread you will see that the nukes we are talking about are B61 free fall bombs of US origin. These bombs are still US owned and controlled (including codes required to arm them) and will only be handed over to a turkish air force wing for delivery if the shit really hits the fan (in other words a full nuclear war between NATO and Russia...ahem...I mean "somebody" else).

This is the same system which is or has been in use with a lot of other NATO countries.

So these Nukes are in no way comparable to the Israeli arsenal which is fully independent and can be delivered by several different assets.

 

[TaranisAttack]

So are these missiles the equivalent of Turkey having nuclear weapons, in the same way Israel does?

No, they are just an overseas deployment of American warheads. They are no more Turkish than anything else a country deploys to Turkey. Turkey does not decide when they are used. Turkey can however decide when they are NOT used by refusing to let their planes drop them. The idea with the system was to deploy tactical nukes near to the USSR in the same way the Russians sent nukes to the Eastern European states.

Of course it doesn't really matter if Turkey says no to its jets dropping American nukes for it. In reality any tactical strike would come from B2 bombers which would fly from the USA or UK, any strike requiring larger numbers than that is a full on nuclear war and so would mainly be the domain of ballistic missile submarines... the aircraft would just be ground targets.