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The United States — as announced last month[1] — began to send new B61-12 nuclear bombs to Italy and other European countries. A U.S. Air Force Department official document confirms this.

The document establishes “safety rules for C-17 airlift operations transporting B61-12 weapons in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.” That area, in the Pentagon’s geography, includes not only Europe but the entire Russian Federation.

The document specifies which nuclear weapons are carried on C -17 Globe-masters, the largest U.S. military transport aircraft.  The airplane carries the B61-12 nuclear bombs from the United States to Europe and from Europe to the United States the bombs replacing the B61-3, B61-4, and B61-7. In fact, a single B61-12 has four power options depending on the target to be hit. The C-17 Globemasters – the document again specifies – also carry other nuclear weapons: the B61-11, W78, W80-1, B83-1, and W87-0.

The safety standards listed in the document confirm the dangerous nature of loading, transporting, and unloading nuclear weapons. There may be “the likelihood of fire from an aircraft with nuclear weapons on board” and a failure of the aircraft while in. flight that forces “an emergency landing” or the “release of nuclear weapons”.

The deployment on our national territory of the new U.S. nuclear bombs – first-strike weapons with precision guidance and anti-bunker capabilities, with which F-35 fighter jets, in particular, will be equipped – exposes Italy to the front lines of the increasingly dangerous confrontation between NATO and Russia. In doing so, Italy violates the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, ratified in 1975, which states, “Each of the militarily non-nuclear states undertakes not to receive from anyone nuclear weapons, directly or indirectly.”

The episode closes with an interview with Vladimir Kozin, one of Russia’s leading experts on politico-military issues, and historian Franco Cardini on the silence of the Italian government and parliament and the historical phase we are living through.

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This article was originally published on byoblu.

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Note

[1] View  November 4 Grandangolo https://www.byoblu.com/2022/11/04/sotto-lalbero-di-natalela-nuova-bomba-nucleare-usa-b61-12-grandangolo-pangea/