REVELATIONS

Trump Confirms Existence of U.S. Nuclear Weapons at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base

The president says he’s “very confident” the 50 nukes—which have long been an open secret—are safe.

President Trump appeared to confirm the number and location of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Turkey, ending decades of nominal secrecy about the weapons. “We’re very confident” they’re safe, Trump said when asked if he was concerned about the security of the roughly 50 nuclear weapons stored at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, according to a White House pool report. It’s long been known that the U.S. military stores B-61 tactical nuclear gravity bombs at Incirlik, a deployment which has its roots in Cold War planning during the 1960s. But U.S. and NATO officials have largely refrained from disclosing the number and location of nuclear weapons in Europe. The security of the U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik has been a subject of growing concern since the growth of ISIS in neighboring Syria, a 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and a downturn in relations as Turkey has increasingly feuded with the U.S. and embraced adversaries like Russia. 

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Adam RawnsleyFormer Senior Researcher

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