As soon as known as Thule Air Base, now generally known as Pituffik House Base, this U.S.-operated set up in northwestern Greenland is likely one of the most strategically necessary navy websites on the earth — even when most People have by no means heard of it.
“It’s fairly actually the outermost eye of American protection,” stated Peter Ernstved Rasmussen, a Danish protection analyst. “Pituffik is the place the U.S. can detect a launch, calculate the trajectory and activate its missile protection programs. It’s irreplaceable.”
The outpost is getting new consideration as President Trump, who has vowed to make Greenland a part of the USA, sends a high-level delegation to the island this week. The guests will embody Vice President JD Vance, who stated on Tuesday that he supposed to go to “our guardians” within the House Pressure whereas there.
About 150 U.S. Air Pressure and House Pressure personnel are completely stationed at Pituffik (pronounced Bee-doo-FEEK). They deal with missile protection and house surveillance, and the Upgraded Early Warning Radar based mostly right here can detect ballistic missiles of their earliest moments of flight.
There’s additionally a contingent of New York Air Nationwide Guard that assist science missions through the summer season. These personnel primarily use a distinct airport in southern Greenland however often go by means of Pituffik. Flying the U.S. navy’s solely ski-equipped plane, the LC-130, they ship researchers and provides to camps across the island.
Pituffik is the one U.S. navy base on Greenland.
The historical past
The American navy presence in Greenland started throughout World Battle II, when Greenland was a Danish colony. After Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, Greenland was instantly remoted and undefended. America struck a quiet cope with Denmark’s ambassador in Washington — bypassing the German-controlled authorities in Copenhagen — for American troops to construct airfields and climate stations on the island.
By 1941, U.S. forces had landed, organising defenses and scanning the North Atlantic for German submarines. A decade later, Denmark and the USA formalized the association with a protection treaty granting Washington broad rights to function navy amenities on the island. Greenland is now a semiautonomous a part of Denmark, which, like the USA, is a NATO nation.
Through the Chilly Battle, Thule grew to become a key Arctic outpost. From right here, long-range American bombers might attain the Soviet Union, and big radar programs have been constructed to detect missiles crossing the polar route — the shortest path between the 2 superpowers.
One of many period’s strangest experiments was Camp Century, a nuclear-powered base constructed beneath the ice within the late Nineteen Fifties as a part of a secret venture known as Iceworm. The plan was to check whether or not nuclear missiles could possibly be hidden and launched from beneath the floor.
“It was Chilly Battle ambition at its wildest,” Mr. Rasmussen stated. “They constructed a nuclear-powered base in one of the vital hostile environments on Earth simply to see if it could possibly be completed.”
The ice proved too unstable, and the bottom was deserted. However the waste — together with radioactive materials and diesel — continues to be buried and scientists warn that warming temperatures might ultimately expose it.
The bottom additionally left a long-lasting mark on Greenland’s Indigenous inhabitants. In 1953, about 130 Inuit have been forcibly relocated from their properties close to Thule to a harsher settlement farther north, poorly suited to conventional searching. Compensation got here many years later, however resentment stays.
The bottom’s identify modified two 12 months in the past from Thule to Pituffik, which suggests in Greenlandic “the place we tie our canines.”
The placement
Pituffik sits above the 76th parallel on Greenland’s northwest coast, about 750 miles from the North Pole. It’s one of the vital distant navy installations on Earth.
The closest settlement, Qaanaaq, is greater than 70 miles away and residential to fewer than 650 folks. Many hunt seals, walrus and, often, polar bears to outlive.
In winter, the solar disappears for weeks and temperatures drop beneath minus 30 Fahrenheit (minus 34 Celsius). Regardless of the circumstances, Pituffik’s airfield runs year-round. Ships can attain the bottom solely throughout a slender summer season window when the ocean ice briefly retreats.
The bottom’s know-how
Pituffik is a part of a worldwide net of U.S. protection infrastructure and an important station. Army consultants say that as new threats like hypersonic missiles emerge, the early-warning programs at Pituffik are indispensable.
Hypersonic cruise missiles don’t go into house, stated Troy J. Bouffard, a retired U.S. Military noncommissioned officer and Arctic protection skilled. “They fly low, they maneuver, and we have now no solution to intercept them as soon as they’re launched,” he stated.
If a missile have been launched from Russia or China towards North America, it might, Mr. Bouffard stated, almost definitely go over the Arctic.
Pituffik’s ground-based sensors are essential in that case, stated Mr. Bouffard, as a result of satellites don’t work effectively in excessive latitudes.
Lasers don’t work within the Arctic, both, he added. “The air columns are filled with ice crystals — principally tiny mirrors — and lasers and mirrors don’t get alongside,” he stated.
Mr. Bouffard sees Pituffik’s function increasing past radar.
“It might additionally function a ahead staging base or a key line of communication,” he stated. “The extra ahead these places are, the extra helpful they’re.”
