The Romanian base is the home of America’s highly sensitive Aegis Ashore anti-ballistic missile facility , which includes a magazine of advanced SM-3 Block 2B missile interceptors . Closed in 2003, the base fell into an increasingly dilapidated state for nearly a decade before the U.S. selected it for its missile defense initiative in 2011. Beginning in late 2013, the facility was rapidly overhauled and adapted for the anti-ballistic missile mission. The Aegis system was certified operational just last May , and while it is designed to defend against low-volume launches of medium-range ballistic missiles from rogue states, Russia still detests its existence .

Only a couple days after we broke down America’s risky nuclear weapons policy in Turkey , European news outlet EurActiv reports that the U.S. has redeployed at least a sizable portion of its arsenal of B61 nuclear bombs from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to Deveselu Air Base in Romania.

Having sought verification for the claims made by its sources, EurActiv writes:

NATO sent EurActiv a diplomatically worded comment which implies that allies must make sure that US nuclear weapons deployed in Europe remain “safe”.

“On your question, please check the Communiqué of the NATO Warsaw Summit (published on 9 July 2016), paragraph 53: “NATO’s nuclear deterrence posture also relies, in part, on United States’ nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Europe and on capabilities and infrastructure provided by Allies concerned. These Allies will ensure that all components of NATO’s nuclear deterrent remain safe, secure, and effective,” a NATO spokesperson wrote to EurActiv.”

Which certainly sounds like a fuzzy answer to a question that could be easily denied, although murky official responses as to inquiries regarding U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe have been the norm since the bombs first arrived there more than half a century ago.

It is against NATO’s own policy to forward-deploy nuclear weapons to the territory of “new” eastern European NATO members such as Romania as defined by The Founding Act of 1997, which states:

“The member States of NATO reiterate that they have no intention, no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members, nor any need to change any aspect of NATO's nuclear posture or nuclear policy - and do not foresee any future need to do so. This subsumes the fact that NATO has decided that it has no intention, no plan, and no reason to establish nuclear weapon storage sites on the territory of those members, whether through the construction of new nuclear storage facilities or the adaptation of old nuclear storage facilities. Nuclear storage sites are understood to be facilities specifically designed for the stationing of nuclear weapons, and include all types of hardened above or below ground facilities (storage bunkers or vaults) designed for storing nuclear weapons.”