US lowering ‘nuclear threshold’ with newer bombs in Europe, says Russia

Russia said on Saturday the accelerated deployment of modernised US B61 tactical nuclear weapons at Nato bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and the country would take the move into account in its military planning. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the gravest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war. 

Amid the Ukraine crisis, Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said his country will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked.

The threats raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared last month it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces control parts of. Putin said the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against his country.

Russia has about 2,000 working tactical nuclear weapons, while the US has about 200, half of which are at bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Politico reported on Wednesday that the US told a closed Nato meeting this month it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.

“We cannot ignore the plans to modernise nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency.

The B61-12 gravity bomb carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than many earlier versions, but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground, according to research by the Federation of American Scientists published in 2014.

“The US is modernising them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge. They [are] turning these weapons into 'battlefield weapons', thereby reducing the nuclear threshold,” Grushko said.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. Politico quoted a spokesperson as saying nuclear details would not be discussed, but the modernisation of B61 weapons had been under way for years.

US President Joe Biden said on October 6 that Putin had brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis, though Biden later said he did not think Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon.

Putin has not mentioned using such a weapon, but has said he suspects Ukraine could detonate a “dirty bomb”, a claim Ukraine and the West said is false.

On Saturday Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a “strategic significance” as Russia's tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these US bombs would be just a short flight from Russia's borders.

The US, according to the US 2022 Nuclear Posture Review published on Thursday, will bolster nuclear deterrence with the F-35, the B61-12 bombs and a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile.

“These flexible, tailorable capabilities are key to ensuring Russia's leadership does not miscalculate regarding the consequences of nuclear use on any scale, thereby reducing their confidence in initiating conventional war against Nato and considering the employment of non-strategic nuclear weapons in such a conflict,” the review said.