For years, the SPD resisted making a decision on whether Germany would continue to participate in NATO's nuclear deterrent.

Unlike France and Great Britain, for example, Germany does not have its own nuclear weapons.

For example, participation in decisions and any necessary attacks with nuclear weapons has always been an option.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Konrad Adenauer, the first Federal Chancellor, had dealt it with the Allies at the time.

On the one hand, Germany is thus a member of NATO's nuclear planning group, where strategic and tactical questions of nuclear deterrence are discussed.

On the other hand, around two dozen American atomic bombs are stored in this country, which could be installed under German fighter planes in the event of an accident.

The weapons and the Tactical Air Force Wing 33 equipped for them are stationed in Büchel / Rhineland-Palatinate.

The coded bombs would be released by the United States.

Wear parts can hardly be obtained

The Luftwaffe has designated Tornado-type combat aircraft for use with nuclear weapons. They are older machines that have mostly been in use since the mid-1980s. Your technique is at the level of the 1970s. Behind the cockpit screens, it looks more like a tube TV than a modern fighter plane. Numerous wear parts can hardly be obtained. In order to get enough machines in the air for training flights, others have to be technically gutted.

Officially, the air force squadron in Büchel has 44 tornadoes. How many of them are ready for use is a secret. However, there are estimates that of the current 85 aircraft that are still on the books of the Air Force, only a quarter are ready for use. The Court of Auditors recently criticized the fact that the Air Force wanted to buy new missiles for the vintage cars as a waste of taxes. This versatile European aircraft, which can also be used as a fighter-bomber and for electronic warfare, will end in 2030 at the latest.

The coalition partners of the SPD, Greens and FDP have been convinced that longer use is out of the question.

As if by magic, the basic conflict between supporters of nuclear participation and their opponents in the SPD and the Greens initially seems to have been resolved.

During the election campaign, the SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich and the SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans had called for an end to participation and the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from Germany.

When Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) announced the order for new, now American, carrier aircraft last year, the SPD put a stop sign.

To the outrage of the Union.

The deduction claim is not new.

But since Russia attacked neighboring countries again, broke the Non-Proliferation Treaty and deployed medium-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region, the situation has changed.

It remains to be seen whether the technologically no longer fresh Büchel bombs will still have a deterrent effect.

Within NATO and in German-American relations, it is a matter of principle, i.e. more about military policy than about tactical-operational benefits.