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FILE - Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) successful bluish Greenland connected Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
Thomas Traasdahl/AP
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — The distant Pituffik Space Base successful northwestern Greenland, which Vice President JD Vance is visiting connected Friday, is the U.S. Department of Defense's northernmost installation.
The basal was built pursuing a 1951 defence statement betwixt Denmark and the United States. It supports rocket warning, rocket defence and abstraction surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
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The Pituffik basal is located connected the northwestern seashore of Greenland, astir 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) northbound of the the Arctic Circle and 1,524 kilometers (947 miles) southbound of the North Pole. It is astir 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) northbound of Greenland's capital, Nuuk.
It was known arsenic the Thule Air Base until 2023, erstwhile it was renamed to admit Greenlandic taste practice and bespeak its relation successful the comparatively caller U.S. Space Force.
The basal is locked successful by crystal for 9 months of the year, but its airfield remains unfastened each twelvemonth round. It is successful changeless acheronian from November to February and changeless daylight from May to August.
It is operated by the 821st Space Base Group and is besides location to the world's northernmost deepwater oversea port. The nearest municipality is Qaanaaq, astir 120 kilometers (75 miles) to the northwest.
March 28, 2025|Updated March 28, 2025 10:28 a.m.
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