What to find out about Pituffik, the one U.S. army base in Greenland

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 enthusiastic about shopping for Greenland or in any other case buying the ice-covered territory partially managed by Denmark.

Actually, 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.

“Right now … this base is the most important geographic location the United States 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 it’s worthwhile to know concerning 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 accordance 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 at the moment. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

The U.S. and Denmark started secretly developing the army set up there in 1951 so the U.S. may stage long-range bombers nearer to China and what was then the Soviet Union. Pituffik continues to function at the moment by way of mutual protection agreements between the U.S. and Denmark.

Beforehand generally known as Thule Air Base, the set up was renamed in 2023 to “recognize Greenlandic cultural heritage and better reflect its role in the U.S. Space Force,” the army mentioned in a press launch.

Location, location, location

Pituffik is crucial to U.S. army capabilities largely as a result of it rests instantly 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.

In response to Bouffard, the U.S. maintains important protection capabilities in Alaska to protect towards a possible assault from the west. Early warnings of a strike from the east may come from U.S. allies similar 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 picture 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 center sector there with that base is absolutely paramount,” Bouffard says. “That is the area that has some gaps in capabilities that could 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 accordance with Bouffard. It’s the Protection Division’s northernmost set up, the place common winter temperatures sink to between 13-20 levels beneath zero.

If the bottom upgraded its programs to raised counter new threats from Russia, similar to hypersonic cruise missiles, it could must defend that know-how with short- and medium-range military air defenses, Bouffard says.

“To date, those U.S. Army-type of units have never operated in the Arctic like this and neither have the systems,” he says.