Pituffik Space Base ( ; ; ), formerly Thule Air Base (), is a

United States Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space force branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the Unite ...

base located on the northwest coast of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

in the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united by the Constitution of Denmark, Constitutional Act, which applies to the entire territor ...

under a defense agreement between Denmark and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 150 United States guardians serve there, after the United States significantly reduced its presence from 6000 personnel during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Denmark was a founding member of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

in 1949, and the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement allowed the United States to operate the base under a NATO framework, as long as both Denmark and the United States remain NATO members. Under the agreement, the Danish national flag must be flown at the base to recognize that the base is on Danish territory, but the United States is allowed to fly its own flag alongside the Danish flag on the facilities it operates. It is the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

and from the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. Pituffik's Arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands ( Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord. The base is home to a substantial portion of the global network of missile warning sensors of

Space Delta 4 Mission Delta 4 (MD4) is a United States Space Force unit responsible for providing strategic and theater missile warning and tracking to the United States and its international partners. It operates three constellations of Overhead Persistent I ...

, and space surveillance and space control sensors of Space Delta 2, providing space awareness and advanced missile detection capabilities to

North American Aerospace Defense Command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a Combined operations, combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air ...

(NORAD), the United States Space Force, and joint partners. Pituffik Space Base is also home to the 821st Space Base Group and is responsible for space base support within the Pituffik Defense Area for the multinational "Team Pituffik" population. The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron (12 SWS), which operates a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) designed to detect and track

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

s launched against North America. The base is also host to Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, part of the Space Delta 6's global satellite control network. The airfield's runway handles more than 3,000 US and international flights per year. The base is also home to the northernmost deep water port in the world. Pituffik Space Base has previously served as the regional hub for nearby installations, including Cape Atholl (

LORAN LORAN (Long Range Navigation) was a hyperbolic navigation, hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the United States during World War II. It was similar to the UK's Gee (navigation), Gee system but operated at lower frequencies in order ...

station), Camp Century (Ice Cap Camp),

Camp TUTO Camp TUTO ("Thule Take-Off") was a major U.S. Army operated research camp at the foot of the Greenland ice cap, east of Thule Air Base. It operated from 1954 to 1966, with revisits for follow-up research. History In the 1950s, Army research uni ...

(Ice Cap Approach Ramp and Airstrip), Sites 1 and 2 (Ice Cap Radar Stations), P-Mountain (radar and communications site), J-Site (BMEWS), North and South Mountains (research sites), and a research rocket firing site. It also was essential in the construction and resupply of High Arctic weather stations, including CFS Alert ( Alert Airport) and Station Nord.

History

Location and original population

In 1818, Sir John Ross's expedition made first contact with nomadic

Inughuit The Inughuit (singular: Inughuaq), Inuhuit, or Smith Sound Inuit, historically called Arctic Highlanders or Polar Eskimos, are an ethnic subgroup of the Greenlandic Inuit. They are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in No ...

in the area. James Saunders's expedition aboard HMS ''North Star'' was marooned in North Star Bay in 1849–50 and named landmarks. In 1910 explorer

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies) ...

established a missionary and trading post there. He called the site "Thule" after classical '' ultima Thule''; the Inuit called it ''Umanaq'' or ''Uummannaq'' ("heart-shaped"), and the site is commonly called "Dundas" today. Whaling captain, explorer, and ethnologist George Comer discovered a midden, dubbed Comer's Midden, at Umanaq in 1916, and an archaeological excavation subsequently revealed a village of the proto-Inuit who came to be called the Thule people. The United States abandoned its territorial claims in the area in 1917 in connection with the purchase of the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

. Denmark assumed control of the village in 1937. A cluster of huts known as Pituffik ("the place the dogs are tied") stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951; a main base street was named Pituffik Boulevard. The population was forcibly relocated to Thule. Later in 1953, the USAF planned to construct an air defense site near that village, and in order to limit contact with soldiers, the Danish government again relocated 130 inhabitants of "Old Thule", settling them north in a newly constructed village also named Thule (colloquially "New Thule", now Qaanaaq). In a Danish Supreme Court judgment of 28 November 2003, the move was considered an expropriative intervention. During the proceedings, the Danish government recognized that the movement was a serious interference and an unlawful act against the local population. The Thule tribe was awarded damages of 500,000 kroner, and the individual members of the tribe who had been exposed to the transfer were granted compensation of 15,000 or 25,000 each. A Danish radio station continued to operate at Dundas, and the abandoned houses remained. The USAF only used that site for about a decade and has since returned to civilian use. Knud Rasmussen was the first to recognize the Pituffik Plain as ideal for an airport. USAAF Colonel Bernt Balchen, who built Sondrestrom Air Base, knew Rasmussen and his idea. Balchen led a flight of two

Consolidated PBY Catalina The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In U.S. Army service, it was designated as the OA- ...

flying boats to Thule on 24 August 1942 and then sent a report advocating an air base to

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

chief Henry "Hap" Arnold. However, the 1951 air base site is a few kilometers inland from the original 1946 airstrip and across the bay from the historical Thule settlement, to which an ice road connects it. The joint Danish-American defense area, designated by treaty, also occupies considerable inland territory in addition to the air base itself.

World War II

After the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, Henrik Kauffmann, Danish Ambassador to the United States, agreed "In the name of the king" with the United States, authorizing the United States to defend the Danish colonies on Greenland from German aggression. This agreement faced Kauffmann with a charge of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

by the protectorate Government. Beginning in the summer of 1941, the Unites States Coast Guard and the War Department established weather and radio stations at Narsarsuaq Airport ( Bluie West-1), Sondrestrom Air Base (Bluie West-8), Ikateq ( Bluie East Two), and Gronnedal (Bluie West-9). In 1943 the Army Air Forces set up

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

s Scoresbysund (Bluie East-3) on the east coast around the southern tip of Greenland, and Thule ( Bluie West-6) to be operated by Danish personnel. Many other sites were set up, but BW-6, isolated in the far North, was then of very minor importance.

Joint weather station

After liberation, Denmark ratified the Kauffmann treaty but began efforts to take over US installations. Nonetheless, in the summer of 1946, the radio and weather station was enhanced with a gravel airstrip and an upper-air (balloon) observatory. This was part of an American-Canadian initiative to construct joint weather stations in the High Arctic. This station was under joint US-Danish operation. The location changed from the Thule (Dundas) civilian village to mainland Pituffik. From 1946 to 1951, the airstrip played an important role in Arctic resupply, aerial mapping, research, and search-and-rescue. The treaty's ratification in 1951 did not change much, except that the Danish national flag must be side by side with the US national flag on the base.

Thule Air Base

In 1949, Denmark joined the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermat ...

(NATO) and abandoned its attempt to remove the United States bases. By the outbreak of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

next year, the USAF embarked on a global program of base-building in which Thule (at the time) would be considered the crown jewel owing to its location across the Pole from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, as well as its merit of being the northernmost port to be reliably resupplied by ship. Thule became a key point in American nuclear retaliation strategy.

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

(SAC) bombers flying over the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

presented less risk of early warning than using bases in the United Kingdom. Defensively, Thule could serve as a base for intercepting bomber attacks along the northeastern approaches to Canada and the United States. A board of Air Force officers headed by Gordon P. Saville recommended pursuing a base at Thule in November 1950. It was subsequently supported by the

Joint Chiefs of Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and ...

and approved by President Truman. To replace the agreement entered into during World War II between the US and Denmark, a new agreement concerning Greenland was ratified on 27 April 1951 (effective on 8 June 1951). At the request of NATO, the agreement became a part of the NATO defense program. The pact specified that the two nations would arrange for the use of facilities in Greenland by NATO forces in defense of the NATO area known as the Greenland Defense Area. Thule Air Base was constructed in secret under the code name Operation Blue Jay, but the project was made public in September 1952. Construction for Thule Air Base began in 1951 and was completed in 1953. The construction of Thule is said to have been comparable in scale to the enormous effort required to build the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

transported the bulk of men, supplies, and equipment from the naval shipyards in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

. On 6 June 1951, an armada of 120 ships sailed from

Naval Station Norfolk Naval Station Norfolk is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command. The installation occupies about of waterfront space and of pier and wharf space of the Ham ...

. On board were 12,000 men and 300,000 tons of cargo. They arrived at Thule on 9 July 1951. Construction, aided by continuous daylight in summer, took place around the clock. The workers lived on board the ships until quarters were built. Once they moved into the quarters, the ships returned home. On 16 June 1951, the base was accidentally discovered by French cultural anthropologist and geographer Jean Malaurie and his Inuit friend Kutikitsoq, on their way back from the geomagnetic North Pole.

Strategic Air Command

74th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-89s Thule 1955

Originally established as a Strategic Air Command installation, Thule periodically served as a dispersal base for B-36 Peacemaker and B-47 Stratojet aircraft during the 1950s. It also provided an ideal site to test the operability and maintainability of these weapon systems in extreme cold weather. Similar operations were also conducted with

B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...

aircraft in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, the Globecom Tower, a tower for military radio communication, was built at Northmountain. At the time of its completion, it was the third tallest human-made structure on earth and the tallest structure north of the Arctic Circle in the Western hemisphere. Reconnaissance from Thule Air Base

In the winter of 1956–1957, three KC-97 tankers and alternately one of two RB-47H aircraft made polar flights to inspect Soviet defenses. Five KC-97s were prepared for flight with engines running in temperatures of to ensure three could achieve airborne status. After a two-hour head start, a B-47 would catch up with them at the northeast coastline of Greenland where two would offload fuel to top off the B-47's tanks (the third was an air spare). The B-47 would then fly seven hours of reconnaissance, while the tankers would return to Thule, refuel, and three would again fly to rendezvous with the returning B-47 at northeast Greenland. The B-47 averaged ten hours and in the air, unless unpredictable weather closed Thule. In that case, the three tankers and the B-47 had to additionally fly to one of three equidistant alternates: England,

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, or

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

. This sometimes occurred in moonless, 24-hour Arctic darkness, December through February. These flights demonstrated the capabilities of the US

to Soviet Anti-Air Defense. In 1959, the airbase was the main staging point for the construction of Camp Century, some from the base. Carved into the ice, and powered by a

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...

, PM-2A Camp Century was officially a scientific research base, but in reality was the site of the top secret Project Iceworm. The camp operated from 1959 until 1967. In the late 1950s, the

DEW Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation. As the exposed surface cools by thermal radiation, radiating its heat, atmospheric moisture condenses at a rate grea ...

1 to 4 were built as "weather stations". Thule Air Base would act as a supply station for the DYE bases.

Aerospace defense

In 1957, construction began on four Nike Missile sites around the base, and they and their radar systems were operational by the end of 1958. In 1961, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar was constructed at "J-Site", northeast of the main base. BMEWS was developed by the RCA Corporation to warn North America of a transpolar missile attack from the Russian mainland and submarine-launched missiles from the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. At this time, Thule was at its peak, with a population of about 10,000. Starting in July 1965, activities at Thule were generally downsized. The base host unit, the 4683d Air Defense Wing, was discontinued. By January 1968, the population of Thule was down to 3,370. On 21 January 1968, a B-52G bomber carrying four nuclear weapons crashed just outside Thule. Thule is the location where the fastest recorded sea level surface wind speed in the world was measured when a peak speed of was recorded on 8 March 1972, immediately prior to the instrument's destruction.

Air Force Space Command

Thule became an Air Force Space Command base in 1982. The US and Denmark agreed to reduce the base to half its original area on 30 September 1986. It was home to the 821st Space Base Group, which exercised air base support responsibilities within the Thule Defense Area. The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron (21st Operations Group, 21st Space Wing), a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site designed to detect and track ICBMs launched against North America. Missile warning and space surveillance information flows to NORAD command centers located at

Peterson Space Force Base Peterson Space Force Base, previously Peterson Air Force Base, Peterson Field, and Army Air Base, Colorado Springs, is a United States Space Force base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is home to ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Thule is also host to Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, part of the 50th Space Wing's global satellite control network, as well as operating many new weapons systems. In addition, the airfield boasts a asphalt runway, with 3,000 US and international flights per year. The Dundas Peninsula, including Old Thule and Uummannaq, was relinquished by the US and returned to Danish jurisdiction on 20 February 2003. A delegation from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly visited Thule in early September 2010 and were told by the base commander that, at that time (summer), approximately 600 personnel were serving at Thule, a mix of mostly US and Danish active duty personnel and contractors. There is only a brief period each year in the summer when sea ice thins sufficiently to send supply ships to the base. The US sends one heavy supply ship each summer in what is called Operation Pacer Goose.

Pituffik Space Base

In 2020, Thule Air Base was formally transferred to the

. On 6 April 2023, Thule was renamed Pituffik Space Base, reflecting its status as a Space Force base and the native name for the region.

Opposition to Trump Greenland threats

On 28 March 2025, Vice President

JD Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republic ...

, his wife Usha, and Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, toured the base, as part of a trip arranged by the Trump administration. Vance was the most senior US government official ever to visit the base. The visit came during a time of renewed discussion of the proposed acquisition of Greenland by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and was opposed by Greenlanders. On 11 April 2025, the base commander, Colonel Susannah Meyers, was relieved of command by the Trump administration for "undermining" Vice President Vance after his visit by sending an email to base personnel (staffed by Americans, Canadians, Danes, and Greenlanders) that included: "I spent the weekend thinking about Friday's visit y VP Vancehe actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you. I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base. I commit that, for as long as I am lucky enough to lead this base, all of our flags will fly proudlytogether".

Major commands to which assigned

* Northeast Air Command, 1 July 19511 April 1957 *

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

, 1 April 19571 July 1960 * Air Defense Command (later redesignated Aerospace Defense Command) 15 January 1968, 1 July 19601 December 1979 * Strategic Air Command, 1 December 197930 September 1992 *

Air Force Space Command An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

, 30 September 199220 December 2019 *

, 20 December 2019 – Present

Major air and space units assigned

* 662nd Air Base Squadron, 20 July 1951 *: Redesignated: 6612th Air Base Group, 1 January 1952 *: Redesignated: 6607th Air Base Wing, 1 June 19541 April 1957 * 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 1 July 19535 August 1954 * 74th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 20 August 195425 June 1958 * 320th Air Refueling Squadron, 4 May 195510 June 1957 *: Detached from 320th Bombardment Wing, March AFB, California * 509th Air Refueling Squadron, c. 17 June 1955c. 3 August 1955 *: Detached from 509th Bombardment Wing, Walker AFB,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

* 96th Air Refueling Squadron, 13 July 195514 September 1955 *: Detached from 96th Bombardment Wing, Altus AFB,

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

* 26th Air Refueling Squadron, 9 September 19552 November 1955; 5 September 195615 December 1956 *: Detached from 380th Bombardment Wing, Plattsburgh AFB, New York * 42d Air Refueling Squadron, 2 November 195528 December 1955; 1 January 19577 March 1957 *: Detached from 42d Bombardment Wing, Loring AFB,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

* 71st Air Refueling Squadron, 29 December 195527 March 1956 *: Detached from 2d Bombardment Wing, Barksdale AFB,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

341st Air Refueling Squadron The 641st Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. After training with Douglas A-20 Havocs in the United States the squadron deployed to the European Theater of World War II, where it engaged in combat until the Surrend ...

, 27 March 195626 June 1956 *: Detached from 341st Bombardment Wing, Dyess AFB,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

* 40th Air Refueling Squadron, 27 June 19564 September 1956; c. 1 October 1958January, 9 1959 *: Detached from 40th Bombardment Wing, Smoky Hill AFB,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

* 340th Air Refueling Squadron, 29 October 195630 December 1956 *: Detached from 340th Bombardment Wing, Whiteman AFB,

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

* 100th Air Refueling Squadron c. 2 Jan 19582 Apr 1958, Detached from 100th Bomb Wing Pease AFB New Hampshire * 509th Air Refueling Squadron c. 3 Apr 19584 Jul 1959, Detached from 509th Bomb Wing Pease AFB New Hampshire * 4083d Strategic Wing, 1 April 19571 July 1959 * 4083d Air Base Group, 1 April 1957 *: Redesignated: 4083d Air Base Wing, 1 July 1960 *: Redesignated: 4083d Air Base Group, 1 October 1960 *: Redesignated: 4683d Combat Support Group, 1 July 1965 *: Redesignated: 4683d Air Base Group, 1 July 19701 October 1977 * 4683d Air Defense Wing, 1 July 19601 July 1965 * 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 3 July 195825 March 1960 * 332d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 1 September 19601 July 1965 * OL-5, 6594th Test Wing (Satellite), Air Force Systems Command, 15 October 1961 *: Redesignated: 22nd Space Operations Squadron, 1 June 1997 *: Redesignated: Det 3, 22d Space Operations Squadron, 1 May 2004 *: Redesignated: Det 1, 23d Space Operations Squadron, 1 October 2010 – present * 12th Missile Warning Group, 31 March 1977 *: Redesignated: 12th Missile Warning Squadron, 15 June 1983 *: Redesignated: 12th Missile Warning Group, 1 October 1989 *: Redesignated: 12th Space Warning Squadron, 15 May 1992 – present * 4711th Air Base Squadron, 31 March 1977 *: Redesignated: 4685th Air Base Squadron, 1 October 198031 March 1981 * 821st Air Base Group, 1 June 2002present *: Redesignated: 821st Space Base Group, 6 April 2023

Major Army units assigned

* 4th Battalion, 55th Artillery, 1 Sep 195820 Dec 1965. ( Nike) * 7th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group, 1 July 1955 – 20 December 1965 (Redesignated 7th Artillery Group 20 March 1958) , B, C, and D Batteries 90mm AAA cannon; 549th 75mm AAA BN (Sky Sweeper); 51st Ordnance Companyref name=":0" />

Remote tracking station

Thule Tracking Station (TTS) is operated by Pituffik Space Base, using the callsign POGO. The station ) is a US Space Force installation in Greenland, near the base, and has a

Remote Tracking Station The Satellite Control Network (SCN), operated by the United States Space Force's Space Delta 6, provides support for the operation, control, and maintenance of a variety of United States Department of Defense and some non-DoD satellites. This i ...

(callsign: Polar Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (POGO)) of the Satellite Control Network. It was originally the classified 6594th Test Wing's Operating Location 5 designated by

Air Force Systems Command The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) is an inactive United States Air Force Major Command. It was established in April 1951, being split off from Air Materiel Command. The mission of AFSC was Research and Development for new weapons systems. AFS ...

on 15 October 1961: the station was operational on 30 March 1962, with "transportable antenna vans parked in an old

bomb assembly building." The permanent RTS equipment was emplaced in 1964, and a communications terminal was emplaced on Pingarssuit Mountain—Thule Site N-32 (moved to Thule Site J in 1983.

Based units

Notable units based at Pituffik Space Base:

United States Space Force

Space Operations Command * Space Base Delta 1 ** 821st Space Base Group *** 821st Support Squadron *** 821st Security Forces Squadron *

** 12th Space Warning Squadron * Space Delta 6 ** 23rd Space Operations Squadron *** Detachment 1

USAF tugboat

To assist with port operations, Pituffik is home to the only tugboat in the Department of the Air Force, the 71-foot '' Rising Star (USAF TG-71-9001)''. In the summertime, the ''Rising Star'' escorts fuel tankers and cargo ships, aligns them with the pier, and moves icebergs out of the way as vessels enter North Star Bay. It is also used for sightseeing tours of the surrounding bays and fjords during the summer. In the winter, it is hauled onto shore. In 2020, the tugboat was used to save a sinking ship and its crew of six south of base, towing the distressed ship back to the port at Pituffik.

Accidents

C-124 plane crash (1954)

In 1954, a Douglas C-124C Globemaster II operated by the US Air Force crashed on approach to the air base, killing ten people.

B-52 nuclear bomber crash (1968)

On 21 January 1968, a B-52G Stratofortress from the 380th Strategic Aerospace Wing,

Plattsburgh Air Force Base Plattsburgh Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air Command (SAC) base covering 3,447 acres (13.7 km) in the extreme northeast corner of New York, located on the western shore of Lake Champlain opposite Burl ...

, New York, on a secret airborne nuclear alert crashed and burned on the ice near Thule Air Base. The impact detonated the

high explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

in the primary units of all four of the B28 nuclear bombs it carried, but nuclear and thermonuclear reactions did not take place due to the

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and

fail-safe In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that, in the event of a failure causes, failure of the design feature, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. ...

mechanisms in the weapons, thus preventing the actual detonation of the weapons themselves. The resulting fire caused extensive

radioactive contamination Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of Radioactive decay, radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is uni ...

. More than 700 Danish civilians and US military personnel worked under hazardous conditions, the former without protective gear, to clean up the nuclear material. In 1987, nearly 200 Danish workers tried unsuccessfully to sue the United States. Kaare Ulbak, chief consultant to the Danish National Institute of Radiation Hygiene, said Denmark had carefully studied the health of the Thule workers and found no evidence of increased mortality or cancer.

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

maintained that all four weapons had been destroyed. Although many of the details of the accident are still classified, some information was released by the US authorities under the Freedom of Information Act. After reviewing these files, an investigative reporter from

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

claimed in May 2007 that the USAF was unable to account for one of the weapons. In 2009, the assertions of the BBC were refuted by a Danish report after a review of the available declassified documentation.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines

, one airline provided commercial service to Pituffik.

Cargo shipping

Schuyler Line Navigation Company, a US flag ocean carrier, provides ocean transportation. Schuyler Line operates under a government contract to supply sustainment and building supplies to the base.

Climate

Pituffik has a

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

( ET) with long, severely cold winters lasting most of the year and short and cool summers. Precipitation is very low year round, but peaks during summer. The structures of the base are built on

permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

, which makes them vulnerable to the effects of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

Film

Pituffik Space Base is depicted in the 2023 documentary film The Color of Ice, which follows scientists testing a hot-tip drill to melt into the ice sheet at the edge of the base.. The film highlights how the ice-sheet surface at TUTO Ramp Road, which was built by

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

for ice-sheet access to Camp Century in the 1960s, has melted downwards by almost . Pituffik Space Base itself is arguably presented as a liminal space in the film.

References

Other sources

* * * Balchen, Bernt. ''Come North With Me''. EP Dutton, New York, 1958. * Fletcher, Harry R. (1989) Air Force Bases Volume II, Active Air Force Bases outside the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. * Maurer, Maurer. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1961 (republished 1983, Office of Air Force History, ). * Ravenstein, Charles A. ''Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947–1977''.

Maxwell Air Force Base Maxwell Air Force Base , officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force (USAF) installation under the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

: Office of Air Force History 1984. .

External links

Pituffik Space Base
— Space Base Delta 1 * * * * {{Authority control Installations of the United States Air Force in Greenland Airports in Greenland Baffin Bay Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Greenland Installations of Strategic Air Command Military airbases established in 1953 1953 establishments in Denmark 1950s establishments in Greenland