The US has begun to practice simulations of dropping nuclear weapons on Europe as part of a NATO military training exercise, known as Steadfast Noon.

Amid increasing international threats to use nuclear weapons, The US has sent bomber and fighter jets to Europe to practice simulating nuclear war.   

The nuclear war training exercise follows warnings of Armageddon from President Joe Biden that we face the threat of a nuclear “apocalypse.” Biden said at a recent Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

“NATO reportedly has quietly started its annual Steadfast Noon nuclear strike exercise in Europe.

This is the exercise that practices NATO’s nuclear strike mission with dual-capable aircraft and the B61 tactical nuclear bombs the US deploys in Europe,” Hans Kristensen wrote in a recent blog for Federation of American Scientists.

Steadfast Noon is a yearly war exercise that involves multiple NATO countries, this year the exercise involves the participation of 14 countries. NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu said, “this exercise helps ensure that the Alliance’s nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.” 

The international aircrafts will rehearse for nuclear war by dropping B61 “tactical” thermonuclear bombs. These tactical nuclear bombs are up to 20 times more powerful than the atom bomb that hit Hiroshima.

Training flights take place over the host country of Belgium, as well as over the North Sea and the United Kingdom. The exercises began on Monday, October 17 and will commence on Sunday, October 30th, according to the NATO announcement. 

Although Steadfast Noon is a yearly war game exercise, this year’s nuclear training exercises are meant as a threat to Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made clear.

“It would send a very wrong signal if we suddenly now canceled a routine, long-time planned exercise because of the war in Ukraine. That would be absolutely the wrong signal to send,” Stoltenberg told reporters. Stoltenberg says that the NATO allies “have also conveyed clearly to Russia that it will have severe consequences if they use nuclear weapons in any way.”

 In a thinly veiled threat of his own, Stoltenberg said, “President Putin’s veiled nuclear threats are dangerous and irresponsible. Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

 

Photo: “WEAPONS, TESTS, NUCLEAR BOMBS, HYDROGEN BOMB (1950s)” by Public.Resource.Org is licensed under CC BY 2.0