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Thule Air Base
IATA: THU - ICAO: BGTL
Summary
Airport type		Military
Operator		USAF
Serves		Qaanaaq
Elevation AMSL		251 ft (77 m)
Coordinates		76°31′53″N, 68°42′12″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
08T/26T	9,997	3,047	Asphalt

Thule Air Base, (or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport) (IATA: THU, ICAO: BGTL), an unincorporated enclave within Qaanaaq municipality, Greenland, is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located 695 miles (1118 km) north of the Arctic Circle and 947 miles (1524 km) south of the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland. It is approximately 550 miles (885 km) east of the North Magnetic Pole. It is the site of the former town of Dundas, which was moved to Qaanaaq for the construction of the base. The permanent population of the base was 235 as of January 1, 2005. Location: 76°32′N, 68°50′W.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1950s 1.2 1960s 1.3 1970s 2 Today 3 Trivia 4 Gallery 5 References 6 External links 7 Related content

The military installations at Thule were first constructed during World War II, when the U.S. in 1941 established ties with a Greenland left essentially autonomous by the Nazi German occupation of Greenland's colonial power Denmark. By 1951 sufficient improvements to the infrastructure had been made to station some bombers here during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

With only a few days notice, the local Inuit community was forced to move away from their ancient hunting grounds in May 1953 and resettle in Qaanaaq, north of Thule. They were not awarded compensation until 1999.

In the winter of 1956-57 three KC-97 tankers and alternately one of two RB-47H aircraft made polar flights to inspect Soviet defenses as depicted in the drawing in the lower left of this page. Five KC-97s prepared for flight with engines running in weather 50°F below zero in order to ensure three got airborne. After a two hour start, a B-47 would catch up with them at the northeast coastline of Greenland where two would offload fuel to top off the 47's tanks (The third was an air spare). The B-47 would then fly seven hours of reconnaissance, while the tankers would return to Thule, refuel, and three would again fly to rendezvous with the returning 47 at NE Greenland. The B-47 averaged ten hours and 4500 km in the air, unless unpredictable weather closed Thule. In that case the three tankers and the B-47 had to additionally fly to one of three equidistant alternates: England, Alaska, or Labrador. All of this in sometimes moonless, 24 hour Arctic darkness December through February. These flights demonstrated the capability of Strategic Air Command to Soviet Anti-Air Defense.

In 1961, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar was constructed at "J-Site," 13 miles northeast of main base. BMEWS was developed by the Raytheon Corporation in order to provide North America warning of a transpolar missile attack from the Russian mainland and submarine-launched missiles from the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. At this time, Thule was at its peak with a population of about 10,000. Starting in July 1965, there was a general downsizing of activities at Thule. The base host unit was deactivated. By January 1968, the population of Thule was down to 3,370. Thule became an Air Force Space Command base in 1982.

Thule, Greenland, is also the home where the fastest sea level surface wind speed in the world was measured when a peak speed of 333 km/h (207 mph) was recorded on March 8, 1972. Interestingly, Thule is the only Air Force Base with an assigned tugboat. The tugboat is used to move icebergs that appear off the coast that may interfere with the flight path of incoming and outgoing flights. The tugboat is also used for daily sightseeing tours of Northstar Bay during the summer months. Check in with the recreation center for the schedule.

Today it is a military base, home to the 821st Air Base Group, which exercises Air Base support responsibilities within the Thule Defense Area. The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site designed to detect and track Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) launched against North America. The 21st Space Wing operates around the world to provide missile warning and space surveillance information to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) command centers located in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. Thule is also host to Detachment 3 of the 22d Space Operations Squadron, part of the 50th Space Wing's global satellite control network and a lot of new weapon systems. In addition, the modern aerodrome boasts a 10,000 foot runway (3000 m) and 2,600 U.S. and international flights per year.

To Thule Air Base at Northmountain, belongs also a radiomast 1241 feet/407 meters, the tallest structure North of the Polar Circle in the Western hemisphere. The world's northernmost deep water port is also located at Thule.

1. The base was mentioned in the 1996 film Executive Decision

Thule Air Base	DC-8 with supplies	Larger image from above	Golf ball-like covering for satellite dishes at Thule
1989 Aerial view

• Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 25 October 2007 to 0901Z 20 December 2007.

• Thule Air Base
• Thule Air Base
• The Ultimate Guide to Thule Air Base
• Analysis (2005) by Danish journalist Joergen Dragsdahl on the US-Danish politics on Thule Air Base: A few dilemmas bypassed in Denmark and Greenland

	Air Force Space Command v • d • e
BASES:	Buckley AFB • Cape Canaveral AFS • Cavalier AFS • Cheyenne Mountain AFS • Clear AFS • F.E. Warren AFB • Los Angeles AFB • Malmstrom AFB • New Boston AFS • Onizuka AFS • Patrick AFB • Peterson AFB • Schriever AFB • Thule AB • Vandenberg AFB
NUMBERED AIR FORCES:	14th Air Force • 20th Air Force
SPACE WINGS:	21st • 30th • 45th • 50th • 90th • 91st • 341st • 460th