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Originally Posted by mpipes
US planning and treaties makes it very clear that under "joint control" or not, the US never looses ownership of the nuke. The US will never allow even the closest ally to gain sole control over a US nuclear weapon....simply will not happen This, in no small part, led to France leaving the NATO military command structure, as the French wanted its own control over the ultimate use of nuclear weapons rather than an American President. It is also the reason why the UK arms its Trident IIs with UK owned and designed weapons. Make no mistake, the US will go to war with an ally when it comes to trying to usurp US protocols and seize the weapons for their own use. Also, the permissive action links and protocols make it impossible for an ally to use the weapon without the necessary codes. While I have no actual knowledge of this, given classified protocols I did know about, I always doubted the PAL codes were available at an overseas base and the codes would only be communicated to the base after war broke out. Remember, we maintain weapons (admitted or not) in countries with varying degrees of stability, and we historically had weapons in countries that have had coups (South Korea, Libya, Turkey, etc), so security of the weapons in the context of attempted military seizure have been planned for.
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France actually developed its own atomic and thermonuclear weapons without outside assistance in the 1960's. Before DeGaulle became French President in 1958 Italy and West Germany had also joined the French Euratom programme to produce their own nuclear weapons.
Britain played a not so-insignificant role in the Second World War Manhattan Project which developed the first American atomic bomb, but after the war America wasn't willing to share its nuclear weapons technology with Britain. So Britain built its own weapons and delivery systems in the 1950's. Since 1958 America and Britain share classified information with each other including nuclear weapons technology, and Britain can use American nuclear weapons and power designs, and also test British nuclear weapons in American test sites. British nuclear weapons are still British, but since 1962 all British delivery systems are American (Polaris and Trident) mainly due to cost reasons.
One of the main reasons for US nuclear sharing with NATO allies was to prevent more European countries from developing nuclear weapons by themselves. This was specifically designed towards Germany, but Italy would also be a country capable of producing its own nuclear weapons. Unlike South Korea, Libya and Turkey were the US has stored nuclear weapons but does not give joint control over them, Italy with other closer NATO allies takes common decisions on nuclear weapons policy with the US, maintains technical equipment required for the use of nuclear weapons, as well as storing nuclear weapons on its territory. They may or may not have some knowledge of US nuclear codes for weapons stored in Italy, but I would say the Italian government would have Italian intelligence agents doing their best to find out what they are if Italy is planning to nationalise US nuclear weapons.