Things to know about Greenland’s Pituffik base, which Vance will visit : NPR

This week, Vice Vice President JD Vance will start a trip to Greenland, the huge Arctic Island, but with a population density with an exciting value of the population of global strategic value.

President Trump has indicated repeatedly during his second term that he is interested in buying Greenland or otherwise Getting an ice -covered area partially controlled by Denmark.

In fact, the United States already has a presence there: Space Pittific baseAn American military installation that Vans will be visited on his journey. The remote base between the United States and Russia is seen as a major position in the US military defenses.

“This rule is the most important geographical location in the United States” in the event of an attack from the Central Sector in the Arctic.

Here is what you need to know about the base.

The history of the only American rule in Greenland

The Pitufik Space base is located on the northwestern coast in Greenland directly via Bafin Bay of Nunavut, Canada. Play bees du, according to the American army.

In 1946, the United States and Denmark Justified a radio station and weather Near where the base is located today. Greenland is a semi -living area in Denmark.

The United States and Denmark started Construction The military installation there in 1951 so that the United States can organize long -term bombers closer to China and the Soviet Union was then. Pituffik continues to work today through mutual defense agreements between the United States and Denmark.

In 2023, the installation was previously renamed in 2023 to recognize the green cultural heritage and reflect its role better in the American space force, “the army. He said in a press release.

The site, the site, the site

Pituffik is very important to US military capabilities in a large part because it settles directly between the northern United States, northern Russia, Bofard and Other national security experts He says.

The US military is conducting a warning against missiles, missile defense and satellite control from Al Qaeda.

According to Boufard, the United States maintains major defensive capabilities in Alaska to protect from a possible attack from the West. Early warnings of the strike can be from the east Come on the allies Like the United Kingdom, Iceland and Greenland.

It appears in this picture on October 4, 2023, the previous name of the Pitufik Space base in North Greenland, in this picture from October 4, 2023.

Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima

Hide the explanatory name

Switch the explanatory name

Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima

“The middle sector there with this base is very important,” says Boufard. “This is the area that has some gaps in the capabilities that can be exploited.”

Russia has long maintained a military presence in the Arctic, and US defense officials said last year China is increasingly interested in At work there. Trump said it was an “absolute necessity” for the United States to own Greenland’s ownership for national security reasons.

But the Pituffik site also offers the army with some challenges, according to Boufard. This is the installation in the far north of the Ministry of Defense, where the average temperatures in the winter are drowned to between 13-20 degrees less than zero.

Boufard says that if Al Qaeda upgraded its systems to face new threats from Russia, such as high -end sound flight missiles, it may have to defend that technology with short and medium -range air defenses.

“Until now, these units of the American army have never operated in the Arctic like this, not systems,” he says.