Nuclear sharing is dressed up as a 'nuclear deterrence' by the US and NATO, but it only acts to roll out these weapons to more parts of the World, therefore making the existence of the current nuclear powers' own stockpiles, much more acceptable to the public at large. Of the three NATO nuclear powers (United Kingdom, France, United States), only the US has loaned out weapons to other countries, and they have even previously loaned out added ballistic weapons to the UK, up until the early 90's, even though they were a nuclear power in their own right, with their own extensive arsenal of the weapons.

The Federation of American Scientists estimates that between 150 and 200 borrowed nuclear warheads are currently being stored in Europe, and they are all loaned by the United States, to European nations, through a NATO-approved 'Nuclear Sharing' scheme, bringing the continents overall total to around 500. The loaned warheads are all kept under guard by United States troops at American military bases in Europe, and during peacetime, only the US military holds the security codes to set off these missiles. According to the respective Nuclear Sharing deals, in the event of a war, it is anticipated that the US military would load the missiles onto military planes which belong to the participating country, and arm them.

Opposition to Nuclear Sharing has come from within NATO itself, and from the Non-Aligned Movement - an association of 118 global countries, who consider themselves to be non-aligned, and not against, any of the current major global power blocs (EU, US, Russia). Many people believe that this policy of Nuclear Sharing violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons, but the United States refutes this by saying that the weapons will only be transferred in the event of a war breaking out.