As the specter of nuclear conflict loomed throughout the Chilly Conflict, the U.S. Military hatched a prime secret plan to hide lots of of missile launchers on rail strains hidden beneath the thick ice sheets of Greenland.
In case of a Soviet assault, nukes dispersed in hundreds of miles of cut-and-cover tunnels might be launched inside 20 minutes. The identify for the hassle was worthy of a Hollywood motion film: Venture Iceworm.
“Iceworm fashioned a part of the broader U.S. ‘polar technique,’ which noticed the Arctic as a vital enviornment for Chilly Conflict nuclear deterrence — a direct route for each Soviet assault and U.S. strategic protection,” mentioned Kristian Nielsen, a historian of science at Aarhus College in Denmark and co-author of the ebook “Camp Century: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Arctic Army Base Beneath the Greenland Ice.”
American fascination with Greenland as a ahead navy place shouldn’t be new. Neither are Danish and Greenlandic doubts in regards to the trustworthiness of the U.S. Through the Chilly Conflict, a lot of navy initiatives have been saved secret and by no means disclosed to Greenlanders or the Danes.
“When the Iceworm paperwork have been declassified in 1996, they induced rigidity and unease as a result of they urged the U.S. had explored main navy plans in Greenland with out informing Denmark,” Nielsen mentioned.
The Danish authorities has repeatedly rejected President Trump’s name to take over, or purchase, Greenland, an autonomous territory that’s a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Public opinion polls present that Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose American management.
Although Venture Iceworm by no means grew to become actuality, its historical past and that of U.S. navy exercise in Greenland do quite a bit to clarify wariness over Trump’s plans for the island.
Simply what these plans would possibly entail is unclear. “Greenland should play a job in rising U.S. missile-defense initiatives, corresponding to [the] Golden Dome, early-warning programs, or internet hosting interceptor capabilities, although nothing resembling Iceworm’s underground missile community,” Nielsen mentioned.
Final month, on the World Financial Discussion board in Switzerland, Trump dominated out utilizing navy power to take the island, however insisted the USA wants Greenland for nationwide safety. “All we’re asking for is to get Greenland, together with proper, title and possession since you want the possession to defend it,” he mentioned. “You may’t defend it on a lease.”
600 nukes below ice
Within the Sixties, as Venture Iceworm was being evaluated by the Division of Protection, the U.S. had simply began working Camp Century, a nuclear-powered scientific publish in northwestern Greenland virtually 130 miles away from the island’s coast, additionally a website for covert navy exercise.
By that point, the Military was touting the bottom as a cutting-edge “metropolis below ice” for Arctic analysis in PR campaigns on American media, whereas additionally secretly utilizing it as a testbed to find out whether or not missile tunnels below the ice sheet have been possible.
“The idea takes benefit of Northern Greenland’s remoteness from populated areas, its relative closeness to Soviet targets, the distinctive adaptability of the Icecap to nuclear deployment, and the proximity of the Thule Base,” in line with a 1962 declassified Military report titled “The U.S. Military’s Iceworm Idea” and forwarded to The Occasions by Nielsen.
Thule, now known as Pituffik House Base, was constructed throughout World Conflict II, certainly one of a number of navy installations established throughout the conflict. It as soon as held as many as 10,000 U.S. navy personnel. In 1946, three years earlier than the creation of NATO, the Truman administration proposed shopping for Greenland for $100 million in gold, however the Danes didn’t settle for the bid, in line with Division of State paperwork declassified within the Nineteen Seventies.
2nd Lt. Peter B. Moulton, standing, makes use of a surveying instrument throughout the building of Camp Century, a U.S. navy base in Greenland, in June 1959.
(Pictorial Parade/Getty Photos)
Plans for Venture Iceworm thought of putting round 600 missiles, at the very least 4 miles aside, in a deployment space as giant as Alabama, in line with the report. Mounted on rail strains, the missiles might be moved about to evade detection by the Soviets. This setup, the report mentioned, would permit launching websites to be “comparatively invulnerable” to enemy warheads, requiring a “large blanket Soviet thermonuclear assault” to destroy Iceworm launchers.
The missiles could be be hidden “28 toes beneath the floor of the Icecap,” virtually the peak of a three-story constructing.
For that purpose, scientists drilled into Greenland’s ice core to check its sub-layers and assess if Iceworm tunnels have been viable. The work produced a nonmilitary profit by gathering knowledge that “helped reveal Earth’s local weather historical past over the previous 100,000 years,” says Ronald Doel, a professor of historical past at Florida State College who co-edited the ebook “Exploring Greenland: Chilly Conflict Science and Expertise on Ice.”
“Iceworm’s potential promise actually helped authorities officers to endorse and embrace the development of Camp Century,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, analysis on Greenland’s surroundings was certainly required to efficiently function there and elsewhere within the Arctic.”
A few of these findings, as an illustration, have been essential for uncovering the results of local weather change. The frozen soil and ice collected beneath Camp Century offered scientists an early prolonged and detailed document of Earth’s local weather from the final 100,000 years, pioneering the type of paleoclimatologic analysis that confirmed how human actions are warming the planet.
A Swiss-made snow elimination machine cuts a trench throughout the building of Camp Century in Greenland in 1959.
(Pictorial Parade/Getty Photos)
Venture Iceworm’s legacy
Venture Iceworm was shelved in 1962, after it was deemed too technically tough — the ice sheet shifts — and because the Navy and Air Pressure pursued much less burdensome initiatives on Greenland. Additionally, American officers weren’t certain if Danes would again the endeavor.
Additionally, when Camp Century was decommissioned round 5 years after Venture Iceworm was scrapped, the Military left hazardous waste behind, corresponding to as much as 52,000 gallons of diesel and radioactive supplies, residues from the small nuclear reactor that had powered the bottom.
Now, because the island’s ice melts due to local weather change, these contaminants could be thrown into the surroundings. “The remnants of Camp Century are being carried to the west coast of Greenland as ice flows within the ice cap, and in some unspecified time in the future will likely be uncovered,” Doel mentioned.
That is, as soon as extra, one other piece of unhealthy information for Greenlanders. Because the Inuit has gained extra political independence from Denmark in the previous couple of many years, corresponding to dwelling rule standing, it additionally might foster a much more fierce opposition towards American navy strikes on the island.
“Right this moment, Iceworm serves primarily as a historic reminder that the U.S. has usually seen Greenland primarily via a safety lens — with restricted consideration for Greenlandic political pursuits,” Nielsen mentioned.
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