From left, Col. Brian Capps, 821st Space Base Group commander; U.S. Space Force commander Gen. Chance Saltzman; Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenlandic foreign affairs minister; U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Alan Leventhal; and Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Clark, 821st Space Group senior enlisted leader, unveil the new Pituffik Space Base sign in Greenland, April 6, 2023. It was previously known as Thule Air Base. (Kaitlin Castillo/U.S. Space Force)
The U.S. military’s Thule Air Base in Greenland is no more. By that name, anyway.
The Defense Department’s northernmost installation was renamed Pituffik Space Base recently, using the Greenlandic name of the area where it is located.
The new moniker is both an effort to respect local culture and a reflection of the transfer of the base’s affiliation to the Space Force, the service said in a statement Thursday. The base, less than 950 miles from the North Pole, was operated by the Air Force until 2020.
“This renaming represents our wish to celebrate and acknowledge the rich cultural heritage of Greenland and its people and how important they are to the sustainment of this installation against the harsh environment north of the Arctic Circle,” Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, said at the ceremony.
Pituffik, pronounced bee-doo-FEEK, is a nod to the original inhabitants, who were forced to relocate when construction of the base began in 1951.
Melting sea ice is opening new economic opportunities in the high north, and the U.S. and its allies expect renewed strategic competition in the region in the coming years, Saltzman said.
U.S. Space Force commander Gen. Chance Saltzman and guests stand in front of a radar dome belonging to the 23rd Space Operations Squadron Detachment 1 at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, April 5, 2023. The unit's mission is to provide telemetry, tracking and commanding operations to U.S. and allied government satellite programs. (Kaitlin Castillo/U.S. Space Force)
U.S. Space Force commander Gen. Chance Saltzman, U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Alan Leventhal and Assistant Defense Secretary Celeste Wallander participate in a tour given by Lt. Col. April Foley, 12th Space Warning Squadron commander, during their visit to Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, April 6, 2023. (Kaitlin Castillo/U.S. Space Force)
U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Alan Leventhal signs the 12th Space Warning Squadron heritage wall during his visit to Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, April 6, 2023. Leventhal participated in the base renaming ceremony. (Kaitlin Castillo/U.S. Space Force)
Russia, which historically has had a significant Arctic presence, has been gradually strengthening its capabilities in the region. China, meanwhile, has shown interest in new Arctic shipping routes.
Saltzman vowed to “ensure a safe, secure and prosperous future both in space and above the Arctic Circle.”
The previous name of the base was derived from a trading post that explorers in the early 1900s established in the area, which they called Thule, after the classical literature term ultima Thule, referring to the northernmost part of the habitable world.
The U.S. built a base there after World War II, and it became a key point in American nuclear retaliation strategy.
Greenland has its own parliament and is a self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark, which oversees its security.
Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s minister for foreign affairs, business and trade, also attended the renaming ceremony and spoke of the importance of allied cooperation.
“Today, the U.S. has proclaimed to the world that here lies Pituffik Space Base, where even this far north, there is a people,” Motzfeldt said. “And they have a name for the place from where we keep watch over all our peoples.”
The 821st Space Base Group, a geographically separate unit of Space Base Delta 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo., operates the base.
Pituffik supports an intercontinental ballistic missile warning mission run by the 12th Space Warning Squadron and a space surveillance mission by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron.
