11 comments

  • tokai 2 hours ago

    >U.S. government [...] will "work with the Danish government and the Greenland authorities to settle questions of mutual security"

    In the end they did no such thing.

  • rurban 4 hours ago

    This is featured prominently in the great movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_(film) with Morena Baccarin, though they filmed the entrance in Iceland, not near Thule. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vxknuDCxRSGtJ4j88

    • unwind 3 hours ago

      Wait what, a tunnel system in Greenland has an entrance in Iceland?

      • krisoft 2 hours ago

        No. In the in-movie fiction both the tunnel and the entrance was in Greenland.

        But in reality they were shooting the entrance scenes somewhere else. In Iceland in this case.

        This happens quite frequently in movies. Toronto or Budapest frequently stands in to all kind of other cities for production reasons. (A subway escalator from Budapest even shows up on the space station of Alien: Romulus)

        • OJFord an hour ago

          Toronto skyline is often apparent in 'New York' scenes, in many productions, Suits for example. It's like they think only NYC will be recognisable (formerly the twin towers, ESB, statue of liberty, etc.) so any view of Toronto can just sub in for an anonymous bit of NYC. (Except perhaps the CN tower, haven't seen anything that stupid!)

        • unwind 2 hours ago

          Ah, I completely mis-read the GP. Thanks.

  • walrus01 3 hours ago

    total clickbait title, to the best of my knowledge ZERO actual missiles were ever based at camp century, and the whole rest of the ridiculous concept of using the greenland ice cap to base missiles was obsoleted in the 1960s by rapid advances in land based and submarine ICBMs.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century

    • pandemic_region 3 hours ago

      I found the title to be correct, reflecting what was discovered i.e. missile "tunnels". I have zero clue about any of this, so it was an interesting read. And yes, a ridiculous idea but that's probably what the Egyptians also thought when the plans to build a pyramid were unveiled ;-)

      • walrus01 3 hours ago

        There were no missiles, erectors, launchers, silo doors, hatches, warheads, fueling systems or solid rockets, launch control systems. Therefore not "nuclear missile tunnels". The whole concept was shelved once they learned what a pain in the ass it would be to build and maintain such a base, and the advances in range and reliability of regular icbms became obvious.

        Camp century was built around the same time as the DEW line and other north warning system radars throughout Greenland and northern Canada, which had a more obvious use and necessity.

    • mrweasel 3 hours ago

      I think the extend of the US nuclear weapons program for Greenland was limited to bombers stationed in Thule. There is a Danish book written about the whole thing, including the accidents. In it there is a paragraph or two about the US government approaching the Danish government, to hear if they would be interested in a briefing about the activities regarding nuclear weapons stationed in Greenland. The answer given to the US was "Absolutely not!".

      The weapons where not suppose to be there, and the Danish government basically took a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to the whole thing.

      Still the consensus is that Project Iceworm never really amounted to anything. The shifting ice and snow cover would have made the whole thing a nightmare to maintain.

      There is a nuclear bomb somewhere under the ice near Thule, which was never recovered after the crash of a B-52.

    • preisschild 2 hours ago

      True and they didnt even mention the small nuclear reactor they used there to power / heat the base...