Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

U.S. nukes in the U.K. and sharing. News has come out that the U.K. is purchasing a squadron of

F-35A's. They will reportedly be stationed at RF Morham in Norfolk.

A NATO country purchasing F-35s is hardly news, but the reason they're being purchased is.

The British government described the move as, quote, the biggest strengthening of the UK's nuclear

posture in a generation.

This means the UK is going to have nuclear weapons deployable by air.

That's a capability the UK hasn't had since about 1998.

Right now, British nuclear capability is based on submarines.

The British government saying that it's a strengthening is a unique word Now, British nuclear capability is based on submarines.

The British government saying that it's a strengthening is a unique word choice.

It's not just a strengthening.

It's a shift back to a posture that the UK abandoned in the 90s after the Soviet Union collapsed.

For the last quarter century, the UK's nuclear posture was one of

solely deterrence. The nukes are submarine-based, and deploying them is really reserved for

nightmare scenarios. However, air-deployable nukes of the types that are likely to be paired

with the new F-35s are smaller.

The B-61 is relatively small in comparison, with one of the variants being only about a third of a

kiloton. To put that into perspective, that's a device that would take out several city blocks.

The sub-launched weapon, on the other hand,

is a city destroyer. If you want to visualize using your own town, you can check out nukesecracy.com

slash nuke map. So, what does a smaller yield really mean? There are what are called battlefield nukes, which means there's a higher likelihood of use

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