Change come's to America's Northernmost military installation. And more on the changing geopolitics brought about by the changing climate.
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Thule is the northernmost U.S. military base in the world and the first outpost that would detect an imminent attack by Russia on the United States. It is the only U.S. operation that can monitor all of Russia’s missile activity, sending a warning within 60 seconds to decision-makers at the Pentagon in Washington and bases in California and Colorado.
Then there is a growing regional challenge. The melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has opened the way for icebreakers to sail from Russia, allowing the country to establish trade routes and military infrastructure in the Arctic. For China, these new routes present similar possibilities.
The American military is belatedly scrambling to address the base’s deterioration, particularly the possibility that an infrastructure failure could disable Thule’s radar tracking. The Americans can’t risk that, even for a second.
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