Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

Why the U.S. Should Move Nukes Out of Turkey

It's not that the coup revealed a huge security risk. It's just that there are more strategic locations for U.S. deterrence -- like Europe.

July 21, 2016 at 3:41 PM UTC

By Tobin Harshaw

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

It's a nice place for nukes, but not the best place for nukes.
Photographer: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images

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A week ago, the question of whether the U.S. should continue to station nuclear missiles in Turkey was of interest only to a passel of national-security geeks and nonproliferation advocates. One failed coup later, the discussion has spread to CNN, the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post and elsewhere. Who's winning the debate?

The U.S. has an undisclosed number of B61 tactical nuclear bombs -- probably around 50 -- in bunkers at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. The U.S. Air Force has operated out of Incirlik for years, more so recently in the fight against Islamic State across the nearby borders of Syria and Iraq.