United States Removes Nuclear Weapons From German Base, Documents Indicate

美国似乎从拉姆斯坦空军基地悄悄地去除了核武器。在这里，B61核弹装载到C-17货运飞机上。

By Hans M. Kristensen

美国空军已将其在德国拉姆斯坦的主要基地从接受定期核武器检查的设施清单中删除，这表明以前存储在基地的核武器可能已被删除并撤回美国。

如果正确，撤回将在欧洲部署的美国核武器数量减少到估计的350 B61炸弹，或大致相当于整个法国核武器库存的规模。

New Nuclear Inspection List

The new nuclear inspection list is contained in the unclassified instructionNuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visit (NSSAV) and Functional Expert Visit (FEV) Program Management聚氨酯blished by the U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) on January 29, 2007. The instruction supersedes an早期版本2005年3月29日,其中也包括拉姆施泰因人工智能r Base.

NSSAV团队包括14-31名检查员，在核武器任务管理的不同领域具有专业知识。NSSAV通常发生在A核保证检查（NSI）之前的六个月之前保持认证以处理和存储核武器。在访问期间，通常持续一周，NSSAV团队观察并评估了该部门如何进行日常运营并管理核代理计划管理。典型的访问包括在罢工飞机上上传和下载培训核武器。

European Bases With Nuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visits

Sources: U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Instruction 91-125,Nuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visits (NSSAV) and Functional Expert Visits (FEV) Program Management, January 29, 2007; U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Instruction 91-125,Nuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visits (NS SAV) and Functional Expert Visits （FEV）计划管理，2005年3月29日。

欧洲美国核武器的简短历史

目前的大约350个核武器数量仅是冷战期间美国部署在欧洲的部队水平的一小部分。该水平在1971年达到了7,300个武器的高峰。到1990年冷战结束时，该数量下降到4,000个武器，1992年跌至700，并在1994年升级为480个武器（所有炸弹）。核裁军倡议的时期，此后被相对稳定的时期取代，缓慢和逐渐减少的措施主要是由于基础封闭而不是武器控制计划。

克林顿政府在2000年末的最后一项行为之一是授权在七个欧洲北约国家的9个基地部署480枚核弹。在希腊退出北约核罢工任务后，2001年撤回了20枚炸弹，2003年德国关闭了梅明尼空军基地时，另外20枚炸弹被撤回。

布什政府于2004年5月更新了欧洲的部署授权，以反映这些变化，并且授权可能会清除从拉姆斯坦空军基地撤离。但是截至2005年3月下旬，拉姆斯坦仍在更新列表接收核保证人员援助访问的装置。那个报告U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe聚氨酯blished by the自然资源国防委员会2005年2月，估计在欧洲部署的440-480核弹。

US Nuclear Weapons in Europe, 1954-2007

1971年，美国在欧洲的核武器部署以7,300武器达到峰值，十年前的武器显着降低了，但此后一直保持相对稳定。

Then in May 2005, the German magazineDer Spiegelcitedunnamed German defense officials saying that the U.S. had quietly removed nuclear weapons from Ramstein Air Base during major construction work at the base. The assumption was that the move was temporary, but the German officials hoped they would never return. Their wish seems to have come through with Ramstein’s removal from the updated Air Force instruction published in January 2007.

Both the U.S. government and NATO have always refused to disclose the number of weapons deployed in Europe but occasionally have provided the approximate range of the force level or the percentage of reduction since the Cold War. In一个采访with Italian RAINEWS in April 2007, NATO Vice Secretary General Guy Roberts also refused to disclose the number weapons, but explained: “We do say that we’re down to a few hundred nuclear weapons.”

Seen in Cold War context, 350 bombs may not seem like a lot, but for the post-Cold War era it is a significant force. It is roughly equivalent is size to the entire French nuclear arsenal, larger than the Chinese nuclear arsenal, and it is larger that the nuclear arsenals of all the three non-NPT countries Israel, India and Pakistan combined.

最近重申核任务

Despite the apparent reduction, NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) as recently as June 15, 2007,reaffirmed在欧洲部署美国核武器的重要性。NPG表示，武器的目的是“维护和平，防止强迫和任何形式的战争”，北约对欧洲的美国部署“巨大价值”。NPG并未确定武器打算保护的任何特定敌人，而是说他们“在联盟的欧洲和北美成员之间提供了基本的政治和军事联系”。

Büchel空军基地

目前，德国唯一的核武器存储现场似乎是Büchel空军基地，盗窃（而不是敌人的攻击）是这些安全部队在2007年2月实行的主要威胁。

Germany’s Nuclear Decline

明显从拉姆斯坦空军基地撤离也引发了有关诺维尼奇空军基地德国龙卷风中队持续的核罢工任务的疑问。基地以前存储了核武器，但它们于1995年被移至拉姆斯坦，目的是在必要时很快将其返回诺维尼奇。退出拉姆斯坦（Ramstein）将表明，诺维尼奇（Nörvenich）的第31翼可能不再执行核罢工任务，而德国对北约核任务的贡献现在沦为比切尔空军基地。

A reduction to a single German nuclear base with “only” 20 nuclear bombs is a dramatic change from the late-1980s, when more than 2,570 nuclear weapons were deployed at dozens of locations across the country. The latest withdrawal follows a political seachange in German voters’ views on nuclear weapons in the country.一项民意调查聚氨酯blished byDer Spiegelin 2005 revealed an overwhelming support across the political spectrum for a complete withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany.

德国政府说in May 2005 that it would raise the issue of continued deployment within NATO, but officials later告诉《明镜周刊》that the government had changed its mind. Yet the withdrawal from Ramstein indicates that the government has been more proactive than thought or that the Bush administration “got the message” and decided not to return the weapons. The withdrawal reduces Germany from the status of a major nuclear host nation to one on par with Belgium and the Netherlands, both of which also only have one nuclear base. The German government can now safely decide to follow Greece, which in 2001 unilaterally left NATO’s nuclear club. This in turn would open the possibility that Belgium (and likely also the Netherlands) will follow suit, essentially throwing NATO’s long-held principle of nuclear burdensharing into disarray.

A New Southern Focus

For now, the withdrawal from Ramstein Air Base shifts the geographic focus of NATO’s nuclear posture to the south. Before the withdrawal, a clear majority of NATO’s nuclear weapons were deployed in Northern and Central Europe. After the withdrawal, however, more than half (51%) of the weapons are deployed in Southern Europe along the Eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea in Italy and Turkey.

地理转变对北约国家正在积极参与的国际安全问题产生了影响，例如试图建立地中海核武器无核武器区，以及说服伊朗等国家不开发核武器的国家的金博宝正规网址努力。北约核姿势的新南部重点将使说服该地区其他国家表现出限制，这将变得更加困难。

Background:Satellite Images of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Bases Europe|美国在欧洲的核武器(report from 2005)