The United States has maintained military installations across Greenland since World War II, with over 30 bases established during the Cold War. Today, only Pituffik Space Base remains operational, but President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system could bring expanded American military infrastructure back to the Arctic island.
A Strategic Location Since World War II
The American military presence in Greenland began in April 1941 when the U.S. government signed an agreement with Danish Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann. This deal established the legal foundation for U.S. military bases on the island. During World War II, weather stations across Greenland proved crucial to Allied operations. These stations helped determine optimal conditions for the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. Greenland’s geographic position as a breeding ground for storms affecting Western Europe made it strategically vital for meteorological intelligence.
At its peak during the Cold War, the U.S. military operated more than a dozen bases across Greenland. Thousands of American troops were stationed throughout the territory. A particularly important strategic asset included a string of seafloor hydrophones positioned to detect Soviet ballistic submarines passing through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap, a critical naval chokepoint.
The DEW-Line Radar Stations
In the 1950s, American military planners realized the United States was vulnerable to long-range Russian bombers. These aircraft could use the route over the Arctic and Greenland to reach American targets. As a result, military leaders decided to construct the DEW-line, which stands for Distant Early Warning.
In 1958, the United States and the Danish government signed an agreement allowing America to build four radar stations across Greenland. These installations were named DYE 1 through DYE 4. Their primary mission was to warn of a potential Soviet air attack against the United States during the Cold War.
Two of these stations were built in the middle of the ice sheet. Engineers constructed them somewhat like offshore oil platforms. They created ten-meter-high steel legs on which they placed the station buildings. This design allowed snow to blow underneath without burying the structures.
Interestingly, all four stations remained operational for three decades. Three of them closed in 1988, and the final one shut down in 1991. One of the abandoned stations, DYE 2, was visited by DR’s series on Arctic rescue operations together with adventurer Erik B. Jørgensen. The station was abandoned in great haste due to fears that the building might collapse. As a result, soda, beer, and eggs remain there to this day.
Bluie East and West Installations
Radar stations were far from the only American military infrastructure in Greenland. Particularly during the 1940s, the U.S. established a long series of different military installations under the names Bluie East and West. The designation depended on whether they were located on the east or west coast.
Spread across all of Greenland, the United States had more than 30 military installations. Some were more unusual than others. For example, Americans established an airport in Kulusuk to supply the DYE 4 station. The two stations on the ice sheet were supplied by Hercules aircraft fitted with skis underneath.
The airport in Kangerlussuaq was originally an American base called Bluie West 8. Today it serves as the Danish military’s primary air station in Greenland. It also houses the Arctic Basic Training program. Several American research stations operated tunnels under the ice where scientists experimented with whether humans could live beneath the frozen surface.
Camp Century and Project Iceworm
One notable facility was Camp Tuto, which Crown Princess Margrethe, her father King Frederik, and Queen Ingrid visited in 1960 during Margrethe’s first trip to Greenland. Research stations were used for both glaciological and geophysical studies. At Camp Century, Americans drilled the first ice core that reached all the way from the surface to the bedrock in 1966.
Camp Century operated under the ice with several hundred meters of tunnels, a cinema, living quarters, and laboratories. Everything was powered by a portable nuclear reactor. However, Camp Century also served a more spectacular purpose.
The United States developed a plan to place 600 nuclear missiles that could be moved around on rails in several thousand kilometers of tunnels under the ice. This system would allow missiles to be relocated constantly so the enemy could never determine their exact positions. Despite these ambitious plans, the project called Iceworm never materialized.
Pituffik Space Base Today
Currently, the U.S. military maintains only one installation in Greenland: Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base until it was renamed in 2023. This facility is the northernmost U.S. military installation in the world and hosts fewer than 200 Space Force Guardians and Air Force Airmen.
Pituffik serves two primary strategic missions. The 12th Space Warning Squadron operates a ground-based radar system providing early warning of potential inbound missiles launched toward the U.S. homeland from adversaries such as Russia. This same radar tracks objects in space, including satellites and fractional orbital bombardment systems launched over the North Pole.
The 23rd Space Operations Squadron operates a satellite control network that sends and receives command and control communications to satellites supporting northern operations involving aircraft and submarines. In February 2025, F-16s and KC-135s deployed to Pituffik for Operation Noble Defender, enduring subfreezing temperatures reaching minus 29 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills of minus 56 degrees.
Greenland’s Role in Golden Dome
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly stated that Greenland is important for the missile shield known as Golden Dome. This next-generation defense system is designed to protect the United States from essentially all flying threats. The radar at Pituffik Space Base will become part of Trump’s ambitious project, according to Major Karsten Marrup, chief of the Center for Air and Space Operations at the Defense Academy.
Naturally, the specific plans for what the United States intends to do with Greenland as part of Golden Dome have not yet been fully disclosed. However, expanding Pituffik Space Base and establishing additional radars around the territory would likely be part of the strategy. This would improve the ability to detect potential enemy missiles, explains senior researcher Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
Greenland’s autonomous status within the Kingdom of Denmark dates back decades, but recent American interest has intensified discussions about the island’s future security arrangements.
Strategic Arctic Competition
With Russia and China seeking to increase their presence in the Arctic, Greenland’s role as a vital location for U.S. early warning systems has intensified. Climate change is melting Arctic ice and opening new sea and air corridors, which continues to increase Greenland’s strategic value.
Without the New START Treaty, which recently expired, the United States and Russia no longer maintain mutual commitments regarding interference with early warning systems. This makes Greenland-based surveillance capabilities even more critical for American national security.
Greenland would serve as an important intermediate layer where hostile missiles heading toward the United States could be intercepted early in their trajectory. Additionally, the island is strategically vital for submarine detection, as existing undersea monitoring systems currently have gaps in tracking submarine movements across North Atlantic and Arctic routes.
Denmark and NATO Response
Denmark has firmly rejected any transfer of territorial control to the United States. However, the Danish government has committed to significant defense investments in Greenland. By January 2026, Denmark had committed over 88 billion kroner to strengthen Arctic defense and security.
Denmark deployed an additional 200 soldiers to Greenland and has discussed plans to station approximately 1,000 Danish ground forces on the island. Multiple NATO allies, including France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Slovenia, and Iceland, have participated in coordinated military deployments and training exercises in Greenland as of January 2026.
In June 2025, the Pentagon transferred military operations in and around Greenland from U.S. European Command authority to U.S. Northern Command. This administrative reorganization reflects Trump’s strategic interest in the territory, though the underlying missions of missile warning and satellite command and control remain unchanged.
Sources and References
The Danish Dream: Why was Greenland granted autonomy from Denmark?
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