What to Know About the Only US Military Base in Greenland

Once called Thule Air Base, now known as Pituffik Space Base, this U.S.-operated installation in northwestern Greenland is one of the most strategically important military sites in the world — even if most Americans have never heard of it.

“It is quite literally the outermost eye of American defense,” said Peter Ernstved Rasmussen, a Danish defense analyst. “Pituffik is where the U.S. can detect a launch, calculate the trajectory and activate its missile defense systems. It’s irreplaceable.”

The outpost is getting new attention as President Trump, who has vowed to make Greenland part of the United States, sends a high-level delegation to the island this week. The visitors will include Vice President JD Vance, who said on Tuesday that he intended to visit “our guardians” in the Space Force while there.

About 150 U.S. Air Force and Space Force personnel are permanently stationed at Pituffik (pronounced Bee-doo-FEEK). They handle missile defense and space surveillance, and the Upgraded Early Warning Radar based here can detect ballistic missiles in their earliest moments of flight.

Each summer, about 70 members of the New York Air National Guard fly into Pituffik to support science missions. Using the U.S. military’s only ski-equipped aircraft, the LC-130, they deliver researchers and supplies to camps on the ice sheet.

Pituffik is the only U.S. military base on Greenland.

The history

The American military presence in Greenland began during World War II, when Greenland was a Danish colony. After Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, Greenland was suddenly isolated and undefended. The United States struck a quiet deal with Denmark’s ambassador in Washington — bypassing the German-controlled government in Copenhagen — for American troops to build airfields and weather stations on the island.