09:57 GMT, October 22, 2009 defpro.com | According to the German daily newspaper “Die Welt”, the liberal party (FDP), which is currently involved in coalition negotiations with the stronger union of conservative parties, CDU/CSU, will include the issue of removing US-owned nuclear weapons from Germany in the future coalition agreement. Embedded in a more general emphasis on the support of global nuclear disarmament, the new administration – which is forming after the elections of the German Federal Parliament on 27 September 2009 – will then press the US to remove all remaining nuclear weapons from Germany.

The US and the United Kingdom stored up to 5,000 nuclear weapons in Germany during the Cold War. It is believed that 20 weapons still remain at the German Büchel airfield near Koblenz in western Germany. According to a report by Hans M. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the US removed the majority of its nuclear weapons by the end of 2007, including an estimated 130 weapons stored at the Ramstein Air Base.

Further, the German weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” reports that bombs stored in Ramstein were removed in 2005 due to facility maintenance work. At the time, this triggered a public discussion in Germany about these remnants of the Cold War.

The few remaining nuclear weapons are used by the German Air Force, within the framework of the nuclear participation agreements in NATO, for training in the use of such weapons by German Tornado fighter bombers. If the German Armed Forces would lose this asset due to a political push by the new administration, Germany would also lose significant political leverage, which might affect the expected push by the administration to become a member of the UN Security Council.


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By Nicolas von Kospoth, Editor