UK Exposed For Breaching The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
A new legal opinion launched on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons has found that the UK’s plans to expand its nuclear weapons programme by purchasing nuclear-capable F-35A fighter jets from the US is in breach of its disarmament commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The purchase means that the UK, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, will have two delivery systems for nuclear weapons and a renewed nuclear mission for the Royal Air Force (RAF) since it retired its sovereign air-launched nuclear weapons. The UK will deploy the F-35s under NATO’s nuclear Dual Capable Aircraft mission. They will be able to deliver both conventional and the nuclear B61-12 guided nuclear bomb.