US soldiers reveal dangerous nuclear secrets
American soldiers who were reviewing their information on well-known educational applications have revealed dangerous nuclear secrets, according to an investigation published by the Bellingcat website, which was able to accurately locate American thermonuclear bombs stored in Europe.
To learn about things like sites with underground "hot" concrete buildings containing nuclear bombs, security patrol schedules, and other details, soldiers created digital flash cards on apps including Shig, Quizzle, and Cram.
"By simply searching the Internet for terms known to be associated with nuclear weapons, Bellingcat was able to discover cards used by military personnel serving at the six European military bases that it says contain nuclear weapons," said Voyke Postma, the article's author.
He found one set of 70 flashcards on the Shig app titled "To Study!"
It points to the bunkers containing nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands.
Among the questions on the card is "How many WS3 vaults are there at Volkel's base?"
The answer according to the card is "Eleven (11)".
The "WS3" is the initials for the military term for weapons storage and security systems.
The Dutch government has never formally acknowledged that the Folkl air base in the southeast of the country contains nuclear weapons.
Another card from the same group indicated that five of the 11 vaults were "hot" and the other six "cold", with each clearly marked.
He found a batch of eighty cards on flashcard website Crum detailing the hot and cold lockers at Aviano Air Force Base in Italy, revealing how a soldier should activate them based on their alert level.
American soldiers in charge of the nuclear arsenal in Europe are regularly subjected to long and detailed security questionnaires, forcing them to memorize a large amount of information and short names.
Another example was mentioned that in bases where B61 thermonuclear airborne missiles are stored, hangars (abbreviated as PAS) are equipped with WSS3 weapons security systems and a concrete structure (bunker) that can contain four B61 thermonuclear bombs. ".
Even worse, a soldier on one of these online forms entered the passwords and usernames needed to deactivate the WS3 security systems.
The Bellingcat website reported that it was also able to "find details of all the other bases known to contain nuclear weapons: Incirlik (Turkey), Gedi (Italy), Buchel (Germany) and Kleine Bruegel (Belgium)."
The oldest of these files date back to 2012, but the most recent was put online in April 2021, says Wojke Postma, who explained that he tried unsuccessfully to obtain comment from NATO, the US Department of Defense and the European Command of the US Army (Yukom) on his article, and it was withdrawn. Review papers from applications shortly after requesting comments.
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