Pituffik House Base, previously often called Thule Air Base, is pictured in northern Greenland on Oct. 4, 2023.
Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP through Getty Photos
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Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP through Getty Photos
Vice President JD Vance this week will embark on a visit to Greenland, the large however sparsely populated Arctic island with international strategic worth.
President Trump has repeatedly signaled in his second time period that he’s excited about shopping for Greenland or in any other case buying the ice-covered territory partially managed by Denmark.
In actual fact, the U.S. already has a presence there: Pituffik House Base, an American army set up that Vance will go to on his journey. The distant base located between the U.S. and Russia is seen as a key outpost in U.S. army defenses.
“Proper now … this base is crucial geographic location the USA has” in case of an assault from the middle sector of the Arctic, says Troy Bouffard, a professor of Arctic safety on the College of Alaska Fairbanks.
This is what you must know in regards to the base.
The historical past of the one U.S. base in Greenland
Pituffik House Base is positioned on the northwestern coast of Greenland simply throughout the Baffin Bay from Nunavut, Canada. It’s pronounced bee-doo-FEEK, in line with the U.S. army.
In 1946, the U.S. and Denmark collectively established a radio and climate station close to the place the bottom sits in the present day. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.
The U.S. and Denmark started secretly establishing the army set up there in 1951 so the U.S. might stage long-range bombers nearer to China and what was then the Soviet Union. Pituffik continues to function in the present day by way of mutual protection agreements between the U.S. and Denmark.
Beforehand often called Thule Air Base, the set up was renamed in 2023 to “acknowledge Greenlandic cultural heritage and higher mirror its position within the U.S. House Drive,” the army mentioned in a press launch.
Location, location, location
Pituffik is important to U.S. army capabilities largely as a result of it rests immediately between the northern U.S. and northern Russia, Bouffard and different nationwide safety consultants say.
The U.S. army conducts missile warning, missile protection and area surveillance missions from the bottom.
Based on Bouffard, the U.S. maintains vital protection capabilities in Alaska to protect towards a possible assault from the west. Early warnings of a strike from the east might come from U.S. allies corresponding to the UK, Iceland and Greenland.
An indication for Thule Air Base, the earlier identify of Pituffik House Base in northern Greenland, is seen on this photograph from Oct. 4, 2023.
Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP through Getty Ima
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Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP through Getty Ima
“The middle sector there with that base is totally paramount,” Bouffard says. “That’s the space that has some gaps in capabilities that may very well be exploited.”
Russia has lengthy maintained a army presence within the Arctic, and U.S. protection officers mentioned final 12 months that China is more and more in working there. Trump has mentioned it’s an “absolute necessity” for the U.S. to take possession of Greenland for nationwide safety causes.
However Pituffik’s location additionally presents the army with some challenges, in line with Bouffard. It’s the Protection Division’s northernmost set up, the place common winter temperatures sink to between 13-20 levels under zero.
If the bottom upgraded its techniques to raised counter new threats from Russia, corresponding to hypersonic cruise missiles, it might need to defend that expertise with short- and medium-range military air defenses, Bouffard says.
“Up to now, these U.S. Military-type of items have by no means operated within the Arctic like this and neither have the techniques,” he says.
