Foreword: Recently, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Kaczynski declared that he was ready to allow the United States to deploy nuclear weapons in Poland, and when the conflict in Ukraine continues, Russia and NATO are in danger of direct conflict at any time.
One: the role of tactical nuclear weapons
Tactical nuclear weapons the United States is also called "non-strategic nuclear weapons", and the biggest difference with strategic nuclear weapons is mainly used in battlefield operations, in order to prevent accidental injury to their own troops, the power is very small, only thousands of tons, the types of nuclear mines, nuclear depth charges, nuclear artillery shells, short-range nuclear ballistic missiles, nuclear aerial bombs, etc., from the United States to develop 280 mm atomic shells, tactical nuclear weapons have become a new type of battlefield weapons in the Soviet and American arsenals, the United States even claimed that the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield in the future is as common as the use of artillery. It is used to attack heavy army groups, material distribution centers, and combat command organizations on the battlefield. During the Cold War, NATO had only 27 divisions to defend the Central European frontier from the Elbe to the Rhine, with a frontal width of 800 kilometers and a depth of 250 kilometers, but it had to face the powerful "Western Cluster" of the Soviet Union, which consisted of two Guards Tank Army, two Guards Infantry Army, one Guards Assault Army, one Front Line Aviation Group, Artillery Division, and directly subordinate Tactical Rocket Brigade.
Fifty-six ground combat divisions prepared for use in the European Theater of Operations adopted a deep echelon configuration for strategic offensive, with a total of 5880 tanks, 9790 armored vehicles, 4624 artillery pieces, 698 helicopters and 625 combat aircraft, both equipped and trained as the leader of the Soviet Army, all of which were fully loaded first-class combat divisions (sixteen tank divisions, fifteen motorized infantry divisions), in a state of high combat readiness, which could be immediately put into battle in wartime. In a faster blitzkrieg, with a rapid offensive of no more than a month, when nato troops in Europe were too late to receive reinforcements from outside the European battlefield, they quickly occupied the west German industrial base, the main industrial base in West Germany, captured the American logistics warehouses in Frankfurt and the Rhine area, controlled all the main routes and ports in northern Norway and the Greenland-Iceland-Britain line, and cut off British and American reinforcements to Western Europe.
The Soviet first-line ground combat division in East Germany is one hundred and twenty kilometers away from the West German border, the Czech ground combat division is one hundred to three hundred kilometers away from the West German border, these combat divisions need to advance - one hundred to three hundred kilometers to launch an attack, the rivers in West Germany are longitudinal, the armored forces advance an average of ninety kilometers to cross a large river, twenty-five to thirty kilometers forward to cross - a medium river, five to ten kilometers forward to cross a small river, the Soviet logistics support capabilities are relatively weak, vulnerable to air raids, therefore, Soviet combat troops can only carry six days of supplies, the war is prolonged, the Soviet army reinforcements and logistical supply will be difficult, before the Soviet Union launched an attack on Western Europe, NATO will have at least forty-eight hours of early warning time, and reach the peak of mobilization within thirty days, the US military also has time to reinforce from its homeland, the war, the Warsaw Pact and NATO strength ratio is 1.5:1, tanks 2.4:1, aircraft 2.3:1.
If the Warsaw Pact carried out a sudden large-scale nuclear assault, the Soviet armored forces could enter the Rhine River within three days of the start of the war and end the war within two weeks, so the Soviet army's tactical nuclear weapons use rules were very low, and could even be used to attack infantry platoon-level positions, and NATO's only hope was to use tactical nuclear weapons to attack the gaps opened by soviet tank clusters to gain american reinforcements and mobilization time. The United States has developed a detailed tactical nuclear weapons battle plan, for the Americans, the use of tactical nuclear weapons is not limited, because the use of conflicts with the Soviet Union will not pose a threat to the United States mainland, the bombing is only Europeans, the cold war confrontation in the late 70s, the United States deployed 7300 tactical nuclear munitions, including nuclear mines, nuclear missiles, nuclear shells, short-range ballistic missiles carrying low-yield nuclear warheads and cruise missiles, the Soviet army also deployed 15,000-21,700 pieces of various tactical nuclear weapons ，
Two: The current situation of US tactical nuclear weapons
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these tactical nuclear weapons lost their usefulness overnight, the United States in addition to negotiating with Russia to reduce strategic nuclear weapons, but also unilaterally and sharply reduce tactical nuclear weapons, in 1991, the United States dismantled all warships and submarines on the tactical nuclear weapons, the United States Navy no longer carries tactical nuclear weapons, the removal of 850 "spear" land-based battle tactical missiles and 1300 atomic artillery shells, withdrawn from South Korea, Britain, Greece and German bases, mostly transferred to the United States mainland, At the same time, the number of tactical nuclear weapons depots was reduced from 125 to 10. At the beginning of the 21st century, the nearly 10,000 tactical nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal were reduced to 1,100, and now there are about 480, and the tactical nuclear weapons deployed by the United States in Europe are stored in 8 military bases in 6 countries.
There are 150 pieces stored at the Lermunstern Air Base in Germany, 110 pieces stored at the Burugenite and Mayerham bases in the United Kingdom, 90 pieces stored at the Ingelik Air Base in Turkey, 90 pieces stored at the Kihdi Tolle Air Base in Italy, 20 pieces stored in Belgium, and 20 pieces stored in the Netherlands. The main reserves B61-3.B61-4 and B61-10 three types of nuclear aviation bombs, mainly stored in the weapons storage depot of the strictly confidential independent reinforced hangar, consisting of a reinforced concrete base and a set of underground steel structures completely isolated from the conventional environment, covered with a layer of 406 mm thick high-strength cement board, containing code replacement and storage, telephone communication, anti-intrusion sensors and other facilities, The larger reinforced hangar size is 37.5 m x 23 m and the smaller reinforced hangar is 32.5 m x 17 m, both of which are available at most European Air Force bases.
The United States originally planned to build 437 storage depots, a total of more than 1700 nuclear weapons, but in fact only 249 were built at 15 air bases in 7 European countries, each can stock up on 4 nuclear weapons, the total reserve is 996, and now there are 204, most bases only use part of the reserve capacity, only 10 of the 11 "weapons storage depots" at The Kihdi Tolle Air Base in Italy have all 40 nuclear weapons in reserve, and only 4 vacant locations. The construction and maintenance of the repository is a considerable expense, with an average of more than $500,000 per depot repair, and in 2005, the United States spent as much as $10.2 million on the maintenance of the repository alone. The Management Weapons Depot is a quartermaster squadron belonging to the 38th Quartermaster Support Group of the Air Force in Europe, each with 110 people, mainly responsible for the safety and daily logistics maintenance of nuclear weapons, and will only hand over nuclear weapons to the user if authorized.
Weapons storage depots are only allowed to be inspected by inspectors when they are reduced to underground and in a locked state, the control panel is not allowed to leak during the inspection, if the storage depot is raised above the ground, then all hangars will be listed as nuclear areas where no one is allowed to approach, and the aircraft in the hangar will also be removed from the hangar to ensure that nuclear weapons and aviation fuel are separated, and there are strict regulations and restrictions on how many flammable and explosive and how far away the hangar is allowed, and the nuclear weapons detonation code is activated by the command and control code management system. It is a small suitcase-sized toolbox consisting of software and 5 pieces of hardware, the software package contains 260,000 annotated and 160,000 uncommented codes, nuclear weapons loading and operator safe handling, inspection, hanging bombs, assembly, disassembly and restocking with cables. Plug. Various connectors such as lead seals, lifting rings, lids, rack joints, buttons and switches complete the docking with the airborne.
Three: The use of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons
Among them, the main one is the B61 nuclear aerial bomb, the B61 nuclear aerial bomb adopts the same modular streamlined projectile body as the B57 aerial bomb, the whole bomb can be divided into a pointed cone head equipped with a dual-channel active radar fuze and a trigger fuze of 2 piezoelectric quartz crystals, a nuclear warhead, a ballistic timer, a battery and the middle of the electronic detonation power generation circuit, a built-in detonation mode selection switch, a safety separation timer dial, a parachute delay selector switch and a tail projectile body that maintains ballistic stability rotation rocket. Parachute and 4 parts of a conical tail with 4 pieces of swept stable tail, the B61 bomb can be detonated on the ground, in the air and at low altitude using free landing, deceleration landing, low altitude drop and up-and-down bombing, the warhead has four selectable blast yields, the minimum is 300 tons, the maximum range from 45,000 tons to 170,000 tons, the explosion yield and detonation method can be selected by the pilot through the select switch.
The U.S. military believes that the time required to deliver tactical nuclear bombs is relatively short, the defensive effectiveness of Russian tactical nuclear weapons is close to zero, tactical nuclear bombs will greatly improve the strike power of the US military and can be used to ensure the unity of NATO member states, B61-0 nuclear aviation bombs began to be developed in 1963, handed over to the equipped troops in 1967, B61-3 and B61-4 were manufactured between 1979 and 1989, and B61-10 began production in 1990. The В61-12 new precision-guided weapon nuclear bomb will not be deployed until 2020. In fiscal year 2012, the United States allocated $8.1 billion to improve the capabilities of the B61 nuclear aerial bomb, and in fiscal year 2013 another $11 billion was allocated for the "life extension" improvement and modification of the B61 nuclear aerial bomb on B-52 and B-2 strategic bombers and on F-35 fighter jets.
Approximately 350 F-15, F-16 and Cyclone fighters of the United States, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and turkey also have the capability to deliver B61-3, 4, 7 and 10 nuclear aerial bombs. Of these, 300 were dropped by American F-15E fighters and F-16C/D fighters, and 180 by NATO F-16 fighters and Tornado fighter-bombers. After NATO's eastward expansion, these fighters can be deployed in the forward airfields deployed in the three Baltic countries, Poland, Slovakia, russia's European part and the strategic targets of belarus throughout the territory are within the range of attack, before NATO's eastward expansion, fighters take 40-50 minutes to fly from Germany to the Russian border, now only 4-7 minutes,
In 2013, Oba President Ma signed political directive No. 24 - "Nuclear Weapons Use Strategy" reaffirmed that tactical nuclear weapons will always be deployed on the front line of Europe", emphasizing that NATO will be a nuclear alliance, the UNITED Nuclear forces are the basis for the security of allies, and the 2013 "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Use Strategy Report" Nuclear weapons use principle is that the United States will never give up the right to use tactical nuclear weapons first, as long as the allies are attacked by tactical nuclear weapons, the United States will use tactical nuclear weapons to fight back. If allied conventional forces are unable to eliminate a major threat, the United States may be the first to use tactical nuclear weapons. General Frank Gorentz, commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe, said that the U.S. Air Force no longer has much of a technical gap with the Russian Air Force, so it is necessary to resume the cold war-era deployment of tactical nuclear weapons near the Russian border.
During the Cold War, the United States signed 68 secret agreements with European countries, including the Atomic Bomb Stockpile Agreement on the stockpiling, custody, insurance, management, decommissioning, and cost-sharing of nuclear weapons, the Atomic Cooperation Agreement to strengthen the exchange of atomic information, the Third-Party Stockpile Agreement on how to deploy nuclear weapons, and the only nuclear agreements that are still in force are Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. In recent years, the United States has tried to build NATO into a world military tool to protect the interests of the United States, if there is no nuclear weapons as a backing and is not conducive to the United States to give orders, the United States needs nuclear weapons to strengthen its dominance in NATO, the United States is the only country in the world to sign a "nuclear responsibility division agreement" with its allies, a total of 15 NATO member states joined this agreement, so that the United States can store and use tactical nuclear weapons in these countries, nato's 28 member states of the "Baltic Air Patrol" operation is dedicated to the delivery of nuclear ammunition rotation training,
Four: Russian tactical nuclear weapons
As the United States becomes more and more motivated to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Poland, Russia also needs to take corresponding measures to restore strategic balance and balance of power, at the end of the 80s the Soviet Union had 15,000 to 25,000 tactical nuclear weapons and 500-600 nuclear weapons storage sites, Russia was founded at a rate of 2,000 at a rate of 2,000 per year, in 2010, Russia announced that it had destroyed 70% of its tactical nuclear weapons, and only 50 tactical nuclear weapons depots remained. In 2009, Russia's tactical nuclear weapons dropped to 3800 pieces, and today Russia's tactical nuclear weapons only have 210 short-range ballistic missile nuclear warheads, 166 anti-aircraft missile nuclear warheads, 334 cruise missile nuclear warheads, 330 anti-submarine missiles, torpedoes and depth charges nuclear warheads, which are on a par with the Tactical Nuclear Weapons of the United States, but the Russian military has more types of tactical nuclear weapons than the United States.
Russia's tactical nuclear weapons use and the US military airdrop is different, Russia's short-range ballistic missiles can not hit Poland, so the main use of strategic bombers to launch cruise missiles, the Russian strategic air force was once the world's most powerful air nuclear strike force, is an important part of the Russian "trinity" nuclear deterrence force, mainly under the command of the 37th Senior Long-range Strategic Force in Moscow, the 37th Army under the jurisdiction of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division in Saratov, and the 326th Heavy Bomber Division in UkraineKa, The 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, with the 52nd Heavy Bomber Regiment in Sekovka, the 49th Heavy Bomber Regiment in Liakkan, the 840th Heavy Bomber Regiment in Sochi and the 121st Heavy Bomber Regiment in Saratov, the 52nd Heavy Bomber Regiment with Tu-22M3 medium bombers, the 121st Heavy Bomber Regiment as the core of the Russian strategic bomber force, equipped with Tu-160 bombers, and the 840th Heavy Bomber Regiment with Tu-22M bombers , the 49th Heavy Bomber Regiment was equipped with Tu-22M3 and Tu-95SM bombers.
The 326th Heavy Bomber Division was mainly deployed around the Amur River, and during the Cold War it was against China and Japan, with the 79th Heavy Strategic Bomber Regiment in UkraineKa, the 182nd Heavy Bomber Regiment, the 132nd Heavy Bomber Regiment in Vikingsk, the 444th Heavy Bomber Regiment in Usreisk, the 200th Heavy Bomber in Irkutsk, the 79th Heavy Strategic Bomber Regiment less than 300 kilometers from the Sino-Russian border, equipped with a 95MS bomber. The 444th Heavy Bomber Regiment was equipped with Tu-22M3 bombers, the 132nd Heavy Bomber Regiment with Tu-22M3 bombers, the 200th Heavy Bomber Regiment with Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, and the 182nd Heavy Bomber Regiment with Tu-95MS bombers, these two heavy bomber divisions were the mainstay of the Russian strategic bomber force, equipped with a total of 66 Tu-22M, 39 Tu-95MS6, 32 Tu-95MS16 and 15 Tu-160 bombers, At any time, it is possible to directly attack european areas as far as London.
Five: Conclusion
The general director of the Ukrainian war - the United States in recent years are actively evaluating the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, Poland declared that it is ready to let the United States deploy nuclear weapons in Poland is in line with the wishes of the United States, it is obvious that Poland is self-inflicted, but once there is a conflict between the United States and Russia, the US military will definitely adopt the Afghan model, with the air force to fully support the Ukrainian ground forces to fight, in case the Russian army loses air supremacy, in case of defeat, the time of life and death will inevitably use tactical nuclear weapons to attack the NATO air base in Poland, even if the United States wants to fight back with nuclear weapons, Nor do they dare to attack Russia's territory, lest Russia use strategic nuclear weapons to attack the United States, attacking the Russian ground forces in Ukraine has become the only option, so the two sides use tactical nuclear weapons to bombard each other in Poland and Ukraine, and the polish and Ukrainian nationals are tragic, and the Polish politicians are not brainless, but the instructions of the American masters are far higher than the life and death of their own citizens.