Nuclear War Targets in Europe

Map Legend

Red triangles - B-61 Nuclear Bomb storage vaults

Yellow triangles - former B-61 storage sites

Red stars - Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Sites

Round red circles - NATO HQ

Red hearts - Busiest NATO/US miitary ports in Europe: Rotterdam and Antwerp in Netherlands, and Hamburg & Bremerhaven in Germany.

Red squares - primary counter-force nuclear war targets for each country

ANYTHING IN RED TEXT MEANS A MAJOR TARGET.

MAJOR TARGETS IN EUROPE

The major targets in Europe are NATO facilities and military infrastructures. Anywhere within 300-500km downwind of these target will experience very high fallout radiation and will require adequate protection from gamma radiation for up to two weeks. For more information on how ot surive a nuclear attack check my "How to Survive Nuclear War" video series on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPXn9uC1JTgBgqj8NptLjedIdCnAADYJY

The first major nuclear war targets in Europe are the B-61 nuclear bomb storage vaults which are hardened facilities used to store 1/2 megaton B-61 nuclear gravity bombs that can be loaded on to hundreds of NATO multi-role fighters such as F-15's, F-16's, F-18's, F-22's, F-35's, Dassault Mirage 2000, and others. Once loaded onto fighter jets they can be used to deliver massive devastation on Russia. The stealth fighters such as the F-35 and F-22 act as stealth bombers that can penetrate heavily defended airspace to deliver the bombs deep into Russian territory. NATO also has a massive inventory of long range air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM) that can have nuclear warheads attached, these are likely stored in the vaults as well. These storage vaults were purposely built during the cold war when NATO expected a stand off with Russia (USSR) in Europe. During the cold war NATO had as many as five-hundred B-61 1/2 megaton nuclear bombs stored in twelve hardened vaults across Europe. They have since been reduced to a maximum of one hundred warheads due to treaties, and spread throughout six vaults. However, there is a good chance that NATO has much more stored than what they officially report. NATO supposedly closed down 50% of their B-61 storage vaults, but even if this is true they can easily be re-opened quickly in the event of imminent nuclear war. Therefore even the closed B-61 storage vaults would be a target. All of these B-61 storage vaults were designed to withstand direct blasts from ground bursted hydrogen bombs so Russia would need to hit them with powerful ground burst or sub-surface burst bunker-penetrating warheads of fairly high yield to reliably take them out which will generate a massive amount of fallout.

Other major targets include the Aegis Ashore sites which are located primarily in Poland and Romania, with a radar site in Turkey. The purpose of Aegis Ashore is to intercept ICBM's and IRBM's, it is NATO's de facto missile defense shield installed by the U.S. military under President Obama. There are two missile interceptor launch sites one in Northern Poland, and another in Southeastern Romania both of which will need to be hit with powerful ground burst warheads to reliably take them out. There is a command center at Ramstein and an X-band Radar in Central Turkey, both would also be hit.

Another major target is the Ramstein Base in Germany and surrounding subordinate bases of Büchel, Geilenkirchen and Spangdalem. Ramstein is the U.S. military's largest base outside of the United States and the largest in Europe, it currently houses 50,000 American military personnel and at least 5,000 civilian employees. There is an underground bunker on-site, long runways for landing any type of aircraft including stealth bombers and high speed planes, a B-61 nuclear bomb storage vault, NATO Air Defense command center, and American fighter jet squardrons. Think of Ramstein as the STRATCOM and NORAD of Europe, it is the largest and most important base for NATO and thus a huge target.

In France, the base of Ile Longue is the home of the French nuclear armed Triumphant class submarines, which are the only nuclear deterrant France has besides loading their Mirage2000 fighter jets with nuclear bombs or nuclear tipped cruise missiles. France also has guided missile naval vessels that can be loaded with tactical nuclear warheads and so French naval stations will be hit as well, see below for list of French naval stations. In the U.K. the naval base Clyde is the home base for Britain's nuclear deterrant, which are their nuclear armed submarines.

Other major targets include the main air bases in the U.K. - Waddington, Lakenhealth, Mildenhall, and Fairford which are all used by NATO forces and the U.S. for nuclear bomber flights, ISR flights, and more. The ports in Rotterdam and Antwerp in the Netherlands, and Bremerhaven and Hamburg in Germany are the biggest NATO ports and the busiest ports in Europe. These ports would be critical for NATO re-inforcements into Central/Eastern Europe.

Thus far I have only mentioned the main counter-force targets, but there are also many counter-value targets. A counter-value target is anything of value that can be destroyed to degrade the ability of an enemy to wage a counterattack. Examples of counter-value targets include big cities including capitals, busy ports, and important economic/cultural sites. I did not list capital cities or many counter-value targets because frankly those targets are common sense. However you should assume all major cities not just capitals will be hit by Russian nukes. Any major population center will likely be hit in order to degrade NATO's ability to counterattack by destroying civilian targets. All of the major ports in Europe will likely be hit too, they are ranked below by the tonnage of goods that passed through them in 2018.

Numbers in thousand TEUs, Ranks for 2018, data from Eurostat

Port City Country Sea 2018

1 Port of Rotterdam Rotterdam Netherlands North Sea 13,598

2 Port of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium North Sea 10,830

3 Port of Hamburg Hamburg Germany North Sea 8,741

4 Port of Bremen Bremerhaven Germany North Sea 5,442

5 Port of Valencia Valencia Spain West Med 5,169

6 Port of Piraeus Athens Greece East Med 4,910

7 Port of Algeciras Algeciras Spain West Med 4,773

8 Port of Gioia Tauro Gioia Tauro Italy West Med 4,005

9 Port of Felixstowe Felixstowe UK North Sea 3,781

10 Port of Barcelona Barcelona Spain West Med 3,442

11 Port of Ambarli Istanbul Turkey East Med 3,170

12 Port of Le Havre Le Havre France Channel 2,866

13 Port of Genoa Genoa Italy West Med 2,554

14 Port of Southamptom Southamptom UK Channel 1,970

15 Port of Sines Sines Portugal Atlantic 1,750

16 Port of Gdańsk Gdańsk Poland Baltic 1,736

17 Port of London London UK North Sea 1,680

18 Port of Mersin Mersin Turkey East Med 1,662

19 Port of La Spezia La Spezia Italy West Med 1,653

20 Port of Izmit Izmit Turkey East Med 1,598

Other miscellaneous major military targets:

All airports with long runways will be targeted because they can be used for landing of American stealth bombers, and nuclear bombers (B-52, B1 Lancer), and also for landing fighter jets especially nuclear capable stealth fighters - F22 and F35s. Also F-16’s which can carry B-61 nuclear bombs. Therefore regardless if they are military or civilian airports, any airport with long runways such as most international airports will likely get hit with smaller yield nuclear warheads to prevent NATO from re-purposing them for military use after the primary targets have been hit.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A TOTAL LIST! THERE IS A CHANCE THERE ARE OTHER TARGETS THAT ARE NOT PUBLIC INFORMATION! IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT RUSSIAN ATTACK PLANS MAY BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT IS EXPECTED BY THE WEST!

NATO HQ:

Brussels, Belgium - Main HQ

Mons, Belgium - Military HQ (SHAPE - Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe)

Aegis Ashore ICBM/IRBM Missile Defense sites:

Redzikowo, Poland - interceptor missile launch site

Deveselu Romania - interceptor missile launch site

Kurecik, Turkey - X band radar

Ramstein Air Base, Germany - command center

B61 ½ megaton nuclear bomb storage sites in WS3 vaults:

Volkel Base - Netherlands

Incirlik Base - Turkey

Aviano Base - Italy

Ghedi Base - Italy

Kleine Brogel - Belgium

Buchel - Germany

Former B61 sites, supposedly emptied after the collapse of the USSR for treaty compliance

Norvenich Base - Germany

Ramstein Base - Germany

RAF Lakenheath - UK

Araxos Base - Greece

Balikesir Base - Turkey

Akinci Base/ Mürted Airfield Command - Turkey

Ramstein Air Base - Germany.

-Ramstein is the largest American air force base outside of the United States. 50,000+ American military personnel and civilian specialists and 6,000 German personnel are stationed here.

-B61 nuclear storage

-Underground command center of the joint air defense system of NATO countries (including Aegis Ashore).

-The air base has two runways with a length of 3200 m and 2830 m. Ramstein is one of two bases in Germany where nuclear weapons are stored. Since 1994, F-16 squadrons are based here. Since 1971 and to this day, the air base has stationed transport aircraft as part of the Air Mobility Command of the United States Air Force.

-Ramstein Air Base is the most important trans-shipment point for the transportation of cargo and personnel of the United States in Europe. It can also be used as an evacuation point, since the largest American hospital outside the United States is located near the city of Landstuhl.

-Europe's largest military hospital Landstuhl, landfills, barracks and storage facilities of the US army.

-Currently, Ramstein is a key transshipment point for the U.S. Air mobility command. 16 squadrons of military transport aircraft of the 86th air wing are permanently stationed at The air base.

-In addition, there are three other American air bases nearby: büchel, Geilenkirchen and Spangdalem.

-In December 2005, Ramstein Air Base became infamous for secret CIA flights to transport prisoners.

-Ramstein air base is located just East of the eponymous city of Ramstein, ten kilometers West of Kaiserslautern, in the Federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

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Listed below are the primary nuclear war targets for each country in the continent of Europe.

Belgium

Chievres Air Base

United States Air Force operated airfield located 1.9 km east southeast of the Walloon town of Chièvres in the province of Hainaut, Belgium and about 19 km from Headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, in Casteau. It is mainly used to provide logistic support to NATO and SHAPE. The station and support facilities are operated by the United States Army Garrison Benelux for NATO.

Kleine Brogel Air Base

Home to the Belgian 10th Tactical Wing, operating F-16 Fighting Falcons, which are capable, among other capabilities, of delivering B61 nuclear bombs.

Bulgaria

Aitos/Aytos Logistics Center in Burgas Province

The Aytos Logistics Center comprises military storage facilities located near the town of Aytos, designated for development in support of the Novo Selo Range. The Aytos Logistics Center is among the joint US-Bulgarian military bases established according to the 2006 Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Bulgaria.

Bezmer Air Base in Yambol Province

The Bezmer Air Base is among the joint US-Bulgarian military bases established according to the 2006 Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Bulgaria. Some experts rank Bezmer among the six most important American military bases outside mainland USA. Aircraft and personnel from Bezmer have recently been participating in a number of joint military exercises including the PfP "Cooperative Key" in Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and France, ‘Immediate Response 2005’ and the Bulgarian-American-Romanian "Immediate Response 2006". The base has a modern communication, information and navigation system. A second phase of modernization and infrastructure development is underway, including a runway extension, which would expand the range of aircraft the base can support. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited the base on March 18, 2022.

Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Plovdiv Province

Bulgaria's sole remaining air defence fighter base, taking part in and housing virtually every national and multi-national exercise, involving Bulgarian MiG-29 & Su-25 fighter aircraft . Future plans concern the merging of the 3rd Fighter Air Base at Graf Ignatievo airfield and the 22nd Ground Attack Air Base at Bezmer airfield in one air base in order for the 22nd GAAB to give way to future American military facilities. Graf Ignatievo is often called the German airfield by the Bulgarian aviation society, as the airfield was built with the extensive help of engineers from the Third Reich in the 1930s and was intended to house units of the Luftwaffe.

Novo Selo Range in Sliven Province

The Novo Selo Training Area is a major Bulgarian military training facility established in 1962, presently used by other NATO nations as well. The range has a surface area of 144 km2 (55.6 sq. mi), and is situated 45 km (28 mi) from Bezmer Air Base, and 70 km (43.5 mi) from the port of Burgas in Sliven Province, Bulgaria. The facility has designated areas and sectors for tank shooting, and nuclear, biological, and chemical defense and reconnaissance training. The Novo Selo Training Area is highly appreciated by NATO experts and troops, and has become the favored site of annual joint US and Bulgarian troops exercises since 2004. The Novo Selo Training Area is among the joint US-Bulgarian military bases established according to the 2006 Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Bulgaria. The US Army started in late 2008 a 61 million USD investment in the development of new housing and other infrastructure for the American troops training at Novo Selo Training Area.

Estonia

Amari Lennubaas air base-

Work is being done to prepare the infrastructure for reception and deployment fifth-generation multi-purpose fighters, bombers, and NATO transport aircraft. They are being put into service modern three-coordinate radar stations of American production, means of radio engineering and navigation support for flights.

Tapa military camp - NATO multinational battalion

Finland

Key wartime units:

3 Readiness brigades

2 Jaeger brigades

2 mechanised battle groups

6 Infantry brigades (regional)

14 independent battalions / battlegroups (regional)

28 Territorial Forces (Finland) / company sized (regional)

Helicopter battalion

Special Jaeger battalion

5th Mine Warfare Squadron - Miinalaivue

Operating Pohjanmaa and Pansio class minelayers. The squadron also includes the Finnish Navy Diving School, training conscripts and career personnel as combat and work divers.

7th Missile Squadron - Ohjuslaivue

Operating Hamina class fast attack craft and Kiisla class patrol vessels.

Coastal Fleet: (Pansio, Turku)

Commander Headquarters (Pansio), 4th Minecountermeasures squadron (Pansio), Mine countermeasures, MHCs - Katanpää, Purunpää and Vahterpää, Home Defence Troops' Mine Sweeping Group Sääksi (Kuha and Kiiski classes), Diving, 6th Surface Warfare Squadron (Pansio), Minelaying, Anti-surface warfare, Anti-submarine warfare, Anti-air warfare, 2nd Mine Unit (MLC Uusimaa, MLI Pansio), 2nd Missile Unit (Rauma class), 7th Surface Warfare Squadron (Upinniemi), MLC Hämeenmaa, 1st Missile Unit (Hamina class), 1st Mine Unit (MLI Porkkala, MLI Pyhäranta), 8th Service Support Squadron (Pansio and Upinniemi), Maritime supply and transport, Oil destruction, Garrison support services, 1st Transport Unit, 2nd Transport Unit, Support Company (Military police platoon, Support Platoon, Harbour and transport centre, Materiel Centre (NCO Course), Home Defence Troops' Protection Company

Karelia Air Command, at Kuopio Air Base - F-18’s

Kotka Coast Battalion

Responsible for the surveillance and defence of Kymenlaakso coast, including the major ports of Hamina and Kotka. The Battalion mans the Haapasaari Marine Surveillance Station and the maintains the fortress of Kirkonmaa at high readiness.

Lapland Air Command at Rovaniemi Airport

In addition to civil traffic the runway is also used by F-18 fighter interceptors of Lapin lennosto (Lapland Air Command). The Rovaniemen vartiolentue (Air unit of the Frontier guard of Lapland) is also located nearby.

Logistics Centre (Huoltokeskus)

Naval Academy: (Suomenlinna, Helsinki)

Navy Command headquarters: (Heikkilä, Turku)

Naval Depot: Pansio and Kimito

Navy Training Center - Merivoimien Koulutuskeskus

A unit responsible for the induction and basic training of most Finnish Navy conscripts. The Center also operates a large NCO school and provides training for rank-and-file logistics specialists. From time to time, the Center produced coastal infantry units.Nyland Brigade: (Dragsvik, Ekenäs) (special jaegers)

Porkkala Coast Battalion - Porkkalan Rannikkopataljoona

Responsible for providing logistics, force protection and coastal artillery support for the command headquarters in Upinniemi. In conscript training, the Battalion specializes in producing marine reconnaissance units of the Finnish Navy.

Satakunta Air Command, at Tampere-Pirkkala Air Base - Support and maintenance

Sodankylä and Rovaniemi - Jaegers (Finnish Army Rangers) for Arctic Warfare

Suomenlinna Coastal Regiment

Responsible for continuously keeping Isosaari fortress in state of readiness.

Tikkakoski - Air Force training command

Upinniemi, Kirkkonummi - Coastal Brigade

The main duty of the Gulf of Finland Naval Command during normal condition was the surveillance of Finnish territorial waters and maintaining territorial integrity. In addition, the Command trained conscripts to fulfill duties in the war-time organisation of the Finnish Defence Forces. The readiness fortresses and particular other units of the Command were permanently in a state of high readiness. The Command was succeeded in 2015 by the Coastal Brigade.

France

Air Base 115 Orange-Caritat.

Air defence squadrons Mirage 2000C and transition squadron Mirage 2000B.

Air Base 125 Istres

CFAS nuclear strike stockpile. Strike squadron equipped with Mirage 2000N. Transall C-160 G strategic communication flight. Inflight refueling unit with C-135RF. CEAM, the Air Force military experience centre.