NASA scientists discovered in 2024 remnants of Camp Century, a Cold War-era U.S. military base, under Greenland’s ice sheet. Project Iceworm, a clandestine Pentagon plan, aimed to build nuclear-missile launch sites beneath the Arctic ice. The underground site, which was designed to store 600 medium-range ballistic missiles, reveals the extent of U.S. involvement in Greenland going back over half a century. 

Camp Century, as the outpost was called, was partially constructed in 1959, and abandoned in 1967 after the ice sheet was deemed too unstable to support the proposed missile-launch network. Over the years, ice accumulated and the facility is now buried under at least 100 feet of ice…

The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons has historically been a source of friction with Denmark. The U.S. military at the time didn’t disclose Camp Century’s nuclear-related purpose to Copenhagen, a self-declared nuclear-free zone…In 1968, a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber crashed near the Thule Air Base, causing the payload to rupture and disperse, leading to radioactive contamination of the sea ice. The incident led to public controversy in Denmark, as did the revelation that the U.S. stored nuclear weapons at the Thule Air Base without informing Copenhagen or Greenland.

Excerpt from Sune Engel, The U.S. Nuclear Base Hidden Under Greenland’s Ice, WSJ, May 14, 2025