The U.S. Defense Department will renew its nuclear weapons cache stationed in Germany and other European countries from 2020, according to the news magazine "Der Spiegel" on Sunday.
The U.S. 2015 draft budget is thought to include funding for the deployment of new B61-12-type nuclear weapons in Europe, the magazine has claimed.
The first bombs should be available in 2020 and will cost – according to current estimates – a total of about US$10 billion. Over US$150 million has been provided to secure the weapons in storage, with Germany meeting almost a fifth of the cost.
Among the sites in Europe which are to be modernized is Buchel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the only active nuclear weapons base in the country.
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