US removes its nuclear arms from Britain

· Exit of 110 gravity bombs ends 54-year presence
· Change happened secretly over years, say scientists

The US has removed its nuclear weapons from Britain, ending a contentious presence spanning more than half a century, a report will say today. According to the study by the Federation of American Scientists, the last 110 American nuclear weapons on UK soil were withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on the orders of President George Bush.

The report's author, Hans Kristensen, one of the leading experts on Washington's nuclear arsenal, said the move had happened in the past few years, but had only come to light yesterday.

He described the withdrawal of the B-61 "freefall", or "gravity", bombs as part of a general strategic shift since the end of the cold war.

"The northern front is not very relevant any more for these deployments. The US nuclear posture is almost entirely focused on the southern region, in Incirlik [in Turkey] and Aviano [in Italy]."

Movements of the US arsenal are shrouded in secrecy. Kristensen said the first signs the bombs had left Lakenheath emerged in a US airforce document dated January 2007 on nuclear inspections.

The document lists inspections of US nuclear sites, but above an annexe listing emergency drills carried out at the sites, it notes "not applicable to Lakenheath".

Kristensen's report is posted today at fas.org/blog/ssp.

He says the removal of bombs from Lakenheath follows the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Greece in 2001, and that removal of such weapons from two Nato countries in less than a decade undercuts the argument for continuing deployment in other European countries.The removal from Britain would reduce the US arsenal in Europe to about 250.

Once officially declared, it could defuse current tensions with Moscow and possibly trigger matching cuts in the Russian stockpile. Guardian