US Poised to Open Arctic Bases at Mestersvig and Narsarsuaq Under New Greenland Deal

A defence agreement signed this week could allow the United States to establish military bases at Mestersvig in eastern Greenland and Narsarsuaq in the south, potentially marking the first American military expansion on the semi-autonomous Arctic island in decades.

Mestersvig is a remote outpost where a small Danish detachment has maintained a presence for decades. Only three soldiers currently staff the facility, which was built in the 1960s and includes barracks capable of housing 150 troops. Its 1,800-metre gravel airstrip is long enough to handle military transport aircraft.

The site lies 240 kilometres from the nearest settlement, which has a population of 330, at the edge of an uninhabited national park larger than Germany and France combined. Winters bring near-total darkness and average temperatures of around minus 10 degrees Celsius.

"This is as remote, as cold, and as extreme as you can find in the world. You have to go to Antarctica to find similar conditions," said Anders Ibsen, a former officer with Denmark's Sirius dog sled patrol, an elite unit that uses Mestersvig for resupply.

Strategically, the outpost overlooks the stretch of ocean between Greenland, Iceland and Britain known as the GIUK gap, which Russia's Northern Fleet must cross to reach the Atlantic. For NATO, control of this chokepoint is central to containing Russian naval power.

Justus Hansen, a local member of parliament, welcomed the prospect of an expanded US presence, saying: "In east Greenland, we really need that new money."

The US has made no public announcement about its plans for the base.

The surrounding region has drawn outside interest before. During World War Two, this part of Greenland's coast became a front line in the "weather war", as Germany and the Allies raced to read weather patterns that shaped conditions over the North Atlantic and Europe days later. Germany secretly built manned stations there, but Danish dog sled patrols tracked them down and Allied forces drove them out.

Today, an EU-backed project aims to mine molybdenum, a critical metal for aerospace and defence, about 20 kilometres away. A Texas oil company plans to drill this winter at an untested basin just south of Mestersvig, though it still lacks a permit. The previous owner, ARCO, spent heavily on seismic work in the 1970s but never drilled.

"Any infrastructural improvements in Greenland would be very welcome," said Robert Price, CEO of Greenland Energy, the oil company.

The airstrip can collect up to five metres of snow a year. "When it's snowing, you're basically removing snow 24/7," Ibsen said. "You have plenty to do just staying alive."