The US is upgrading its nuclear arsenal in Europe by replacing older warheads with new generation-related ones, Alistair Burnett, head of media for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), told Sputnik.
"One can see it by the way the US Air Force aircraft designed for this type of transport are being tracked live on air. They [the Biden administration] don't talk about it publicly, but the upgrade of this [nuclear] arsenal is underway,” he said.
The statement comes after ICAN Policy and Research Coordinator Alicia Sanders-Zakre earlier called to withdraw the US nuclear arsenal from Europe as soon as possible.
“The practice of sharing nukes or deploying nuclear weapons on foreign territory is a dangerous and escalatory step that must be condemned worldwide and urgently stopped," Sanders-Zakre said in an interview with Sputnik.
The principle of nuclear sharing is NATO’s arrangement stipulating that "the benefits, responsibilities and risks of nuclear deterrence are shared" across the whole of the alliance, its official website reads.
According to ICAN estimates, the US currently has about 150 B61 nuclear bombs stationed at American air bases in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkiye. The B61, which was designed in 1963, has been produced since 1968.