MTF
Full Member
I think they worry about US stealth bombers taking off from as close as Germany and flying over to Moscow for a decapitating first-strike. But as you said, they can also hit them with SLBMs that might be as close as the Norwegian Sea or Barents Sea. Plus why is a B-2 flight starting from Germany much different than one that starts in Missouri, or Alaska, or Britain or anywhere else? They can refuel in-air and approach Russia from any direction, regardless of where they take off from.UK and France are nuclear powers on their own, but the US has nukes in Turkey, Italy and Germany. Lavrov already mentioned that it is time for the US to remove their nukes from Europe.
To be fair, I do not understand what is their point nowadays considering that the US can hit Russia from sea, air and the US. On Germany, they are all in the same place and it should take Russia to hit them in less than 10 minutes, which is probably less than it would take the US to decide to retaliate or not.
So militarily I don't get it either. Maybe it is just that they think it would be yet another step that would distance the European countries from the US. Because as is the European countries are sort of tied at the hip to the US when it comes to the nuclear war calculus.