The US’s northernmost military base is the Thule Air Base in Greenland, which was strategically, yet illicitly, established to offer the Danish colonies protection from Germany in the Second World War. Today, the base is used for monitoring space for defence purposes.
The Thule Air Base is a military base in Greenland belonging to the US. It is, in fact, the US’s northernmost military base in the world, located just 1,524km from the North Pole and 1,207km north of the Arctic Circle.
The US established the Thule Air Base in 1941 to help Denmark defend its colonies from increasing German aggression. Today, the military base in Greenland is used by the US Air Force (USAF) Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Specifically, it is home to the 21st Space Wing’s network of sensors that provides early missile warning, space surveillance and control.
Establishment of the Thule Air Base
On 9 April 1940, the Danish Ambassador to the US Henrik Kauffmann commenced an agreement with the US that permitted the US military to help Denmark defend its colonies from advancing German forces, who had begun occupying the Danish mainland under a protectorate government.
Exactly one year to the day later, the Danish Ambassador signed ‘The Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland’, which the protectorate government quickly denounced. However, the decision allowed the US to operate across Greenland as long as there was at threat to North America.
The agreement quickly culminated in the US Coast Guard and War Department setting up weather and radio stations at Narsarsuaq Airport, Sondrestrom Air Base, as well as sites at Ikateq and Gronnedal. This was followed by the US Army Air Forces establishing weather stations at Scoresbysund and finally Thule, which was operated by Danish personnel.
The decision by Kauffmann to go behind the back of the Danish Government earned him a charge of high treason and he was stripped from his rank. But Kauffmann ignored this and one of the first things the new parliament did after the Liberation of Denmark in May 1945 was to revoke these charges.
According to
Time, the
US planned to place “up to 600 nuclear-armed medium-range ballistic missiles” in underground tunnels – spanning more than 4,000km – during the Cold War. However, the so-called ‘Project Iceman’, which was located close to Thule at Camp Century, failed due to the fact that the ice sheets covering the tunnels were constantly shifting. By 1965, Camp Century’s personnel were removed and the project was scrapped.
Modern activities: a US space base
