I found this interesting...both for the ambitious scale of the project, and the implications for the US if we ever really did annex Greenland.
Of note are the tons of radioactive waste which still remain..expected to be exposed by the end of the century.
allthatsinteresting.com
By the 1950s, the Cold War had begun to gain steam, as both the United States and the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons. But storing nuclear missiles in the United States came with significant risks, as those locations could be attacked. So, at the end of the decade, the U.S. Army came up with a plan to build a secret nuclear missile facility in Greenland.
A 1951 agreement between the United States and Denmark allowed the Americans to build air bases in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. But the Americans wanted to go further. The U.S. Army wanted to build an underground nuclear facility where missiles could be stored.
The ambitious secret project dubbed Project Iceworm called for 52,000 square miles of tunnels under the ice – around three times the size of Denmark. Trenches positioned four miles apart would hold 600 mobile missiles which could be moved around the facility. And 11,000 soldiers would live beneath the ice, ready to strike when needed.
According to a 1960 top-secret document from the U.S. Army Engineer Studies Center, Greenland was the perfect site for nuclear weapons. It was just 3,000 miles from Moscow, putting missiles in easy striking distance of U.S. targets. The missiles of Project Iceworm would be underground, and easily moved, to avoid detection. And the site guaranteed second-strike capabilities if the Soviet Union fired nukes at the United States first.
Eventually, the engineers built 26 tunnels which stretched across two miles, and led to dorms, a cafeteria, a hospital, and a rec hall. Eventually, the nuclear city would also have a hospital, a school, and a movie theater. Starting in 1960, a nuclear reactor powered Camp Century, and engineers planned to install two more reactors to keep things running.
In order to maintain the cover story, the Army even released a documentary on the “City Under the Ice” to show they had nothing to hide.
But they did have something to hide. Camp Century, under Project Iceworm, was built to hold enough medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) to destroy 80 percent of targets in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
It would have been a formidable nuclear site — if it had ever been finished.
Of note are the tons of radioactive waste which still remain..expected to be exposed by the end of the century.
Project Iceworm: America's Cold War Plan To Build An Underground City In Greenland Filled With Nuclear Launch Sites
Project Iceworm was launched in 1959, but the harsh environment in Greenland caused the Americans to abandon the project less than a decade later.
allthatsinteresting.com
By the 1950s, the Cold War had begun to gain steam, as both the United States and the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons. But storing nuclear missiles in the United States came with significant risks, as those locations could be attacked. So, at the end of the decade, the U.S. Army came up with a plan to build a secret nuclear missile facility in Greenland.
A 1951 agreement between the United States and Denmark allowed the Americans to build air bases in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. But the Americans wanted to go further. The U.S. Army wanted to build an underground nuclear facility where missiles could be stored.
The ambitious secret project dubbed Project Iceworm called for 52,000 square miles of tunnels under the ice – around three times the size of Denmark. Trenches positioned four miles apart would hold 600 mobile missiles which could be moved around the facility. And 11,000 soldiers would live beneath the ice, ready to strike when needed.
According to a 1960 top-secret document from the U.S. Army Engineer Studies Center, Greenland was the perfect site for nuclear weapons. It was just 3,000 miles from Moscow, putting missiles in easy striking distance of U.S. targets. The missiles of Project Iceworm would be underground, and easily moved, to avoid detection. And the site guaranteed second-strike capabilities if the Soviet Union fired nukes at the United States first.
Eventually, the engineers built 26 tunnels which stretched across two miles, and led to dorms, a cafeteria, a hospital, and a rec hall. Eventually, the nuclear city would also have a hospital, a school, and a movie theater. Starting in 1960, a nuclear reactor powered Camp Century, and engineers planned to install two more reactors to keep things running.
In order to maintain the cover story, the Army even released a documentary on the “City Under the Ice” to show they had nothing to hide.
But they did have something to hide. Camp Century, under Project Iceworm, was built to hold enough medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) to destroy 80 percent of targets in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
It would have been a formidable nuclear site — if it had ever been finished.
