As recently as December 2008, the Secretary of Defense Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management said the weapons were an important guarantee of NATO security and also supported nonproliferation efforts by preventing allied states from developing their own weapons programs.  These justifications infuriated arms control experts, who pointed out that NATO countries continue to be protected by the hundreds of land- and submarine-based long-range nuclear-tipped missiles.

 

"The nuclear umbrella can be continued by long-range forces just like it was in the Pacific after [nuclear] weapons were withdrawn from South Korea in 1991," says Hans Kristensen [3] of FAS, who closely monitors nuclear weapons in Europe.