Handle with great care

Very interesting mission carried out yesterday afternoon by this USAF Boeing C-17A Globemaster III (reg. 08-8192).

The aircraft belongs to the 62nd Airlift Wing, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. This unit serves as the Prime Nuclear Airlift Force (PNAF), the only airlift wing in the U.S. Air Force authorized to transport nuclear warheads.

The C-17A departed from its home base at McChord AFB, flying directly to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, before continuing its route towards Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands—another NATO base hosting U.S. nuclear weapons under the “nuclear sharing” agreement.

Later in the afternoon, the Globemaster landed at Ghedi Air Base, near Brescia, at 15:47 local time. Ghedi is the Italian base that houses the U.S. B61 nuclear bombs, which should currently be in the process of being replaced by the modernized B61-12 version, destined to arm both Italian F-35s and Tornado IDS aircraft.

Although there is no official confirmation, it is reasonable to hypothesize that yesterday’s flight might have been connected to logistics related to the ongoing replacement process of U.S. nuclear weapons stored in Europe.