Why the U.S. Has Long Been Interested in Greenland

Photo: Reino Kuber

Vladimir JuškinBalti Venemaa uurimise keskuse direktor

13th January 2025, 01:53

The U.S. has had longstanding military interest in Greenland, writes Vladimir Juškin, Director of the Baltic Center for Russian Studies, in his op-ed.

Mike Waltz, a congressman from Florida and a former Special Forces officer (with service in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa), who has been nominated as National Security Advisor in Donald Trump’s new administration, stated in an interview with Fox News that U.S. interest in Greenland is tied to national security and countering Russia. Trump himself has been even more direct: “Owning and controlling Greenland is absolutely essential for U.S. national security.”

In October 2019, Norway’s public broadcaster, citing military intelligence sources, reported the largest Russian submarine operation since the Cold War. Up to ten Russian submarines, including eight nuclear-powered ones, participated. Sources emphasized that Russian submarines were practicing breaking through NATO’s anti-submarine defense line in the North Atlantic, known as the GIUK (Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom), and stealthily reaching the most remote parts of the Atlantic. “Russia aims to test the West’s ability to detect them and assess their response.”

As early as 2017, NATO’s Submarine Forces Commander, U.S. Admiral Andrew Lennon, remarked, “Russia is clearly interested in underwater infrastructure.” It is now known that Russian submarines and surface reconnaissance ships patrol dangerously close to seabed communication cables, whose locations are clearly marked on maritime charts and navigation systems. Sabotage incidents targeting these connections are well-documented.

Greenland offers ideal conditions for establishing naval bases for the U.S. Second Fleet, responsible for waters adjacent to Canada, the U.S., and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as for the Sixth Fleet, which covers the Atlantic bordering Europe and Africa, along with the Mediterranean. This may align with Trump’s vision. For instance, the port of Sisimiut on Greenland’s west coast is well-suited for an Arctic deep-water harbor (it is Greenland’s northernmost ice-free port).

U.S. military installations could also appear on Greenland’s east coast, providing drone surveillance of Russian submarines in the straits between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom.

Additionally, the U.S. Air Force could resume use of the excellent 3,500-meter runway at Kangerlussuaq International Airport, built by the U.S. in the 1940s to facilitate fighter jet transfers to Europe.

In 1949, following Denmark’s NATO membership, the Americans established Thule Air Base on Greenland’s northwest coast, which the U.S. continues to operate alongside five smaller installations. During the Cold War, the base guarded the shortest route for Soviet strategic bombers to the U.S., passing over the North Pole. It now hosts U.S. ballistic missile early warning systems, including a network of sensors, the 12th Space Warning Squadron, and a satellite operations center under the 23rd Space Operations Squadron.

In 2020, the base officially came under U.S. Space Force control, and in 2023 it was renamed Pituffik Space Base. Its three-kilometer runway handles over 3,000 flights annually. Pituffik provides critical intelligence for satellite operations and detecting potential nuclear missile launches from Russia or China over the Arctic.

During the Cold War, the U.S. initiated “Project Iceworm” in Greenland, aiming to build mobile nuclear missile platforms beneath the ice sheet. The plan included a 4,000-kilometer network of tunnels to host 600 Iceman missiles, a two-stage variant of the intercontinental Minuteman missile.

Between 1958 and 1960, approximately 100 workers built underground corridors spanning several kilometers, housing barracks, dining facilities, a library, a store, a church, and a nuclear reactor for power (a modular PM-2A reactor by Alco Products Inc.). The facility accommodated a garrison of 80 and included underground roads for vehicles transporting missiles.

However, Project Iceworm was abandoned in 1967 after it was determined that Greenland’s ice was too unstable to sustain such infrastructure long-term. The tunnels soon filled with ice, making the facilities inaccessible. Details of the project were declassified in 1997.

Modern military technologies might revive “Iceworm” with updated designs, potentially for deploying medium-range surface-based missiles.

Russia has lost its dominant positions in the Baltic and Black Seas, as well as its secure access to the Mediterranean. The GIUK gap in the North Atlantic is the primary maritime defense line in the event of a military conflict between Russia and Europe. This chokepoint is critical for NATO, requiring constant monitoring and control. In wartime, it must be closed to safeguard the transatlantic supply routes for troops and equipment moving from the U.S. to Europe.

The question remains: will Europe’s new diplomatic leaders find a solution to the challenges posed by President Trump’s plans?

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Donald Trump