Ultima Thule

Heading towards the poles, space/time folds onto itself, and disparate worlds merge into one another. In the Arctic, converging lines of longitude catch nations in a cartographic net, pulling the competing powers of the Northern hemisphere into collision. It is here, then, where the most extreme electronic fortresses and entrenchments were laid between East and West. Engaged in a war of silence, massive sensitive antennas watched for movements, straining to detect in the invisible spectrum. Dark deadly vessels glided silently beneath the ice, hair-triggered to strike with a terminal conflagration. The Arctic was the front line for the cold, Cold War. And history continues.

The American air base at Thule, Greenland was built hurriedly in 1951, but by 1961 its mission had moved from planes to space. Today, the base exists to support two radar and telemetry stations, both established in the early 1960s, at separate locations a few miles from the main base, and both expanded and metamorphosed by evolutions in technology.  Both of these facilities are among those considered most critical to America’s defense, and if they didn’t exist at Thule, they would be duplicated somewhere nearby. Their role is now expanding with the United States’ Missile Defense program.

BMEWS
The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) is a wall of radar established in the Arctic in 1961, using three radar stations: at Clear, Alaska, Flyingdales Air Field in the UK, and at Thule. Thule’s radar was converted to its present form, a ten-story phased array type, built by Raytheon, in 1987. It continues to stare North and East, able to spot missiles and aircrafts in Europe and Asia. Its data is transmitted directly to the legendary bunker in Cheyenne Mountain, at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Det-3
The four domes of the satellite communications facility known as “Detachment 3” are part of a global system of control stations for the defense department’s fleet of over 130 satellites. Enveloping the world in a concentric infosphere, intelligence, imagery, communications, and GPS system information is uploaded and downloaded through this facility, which is linked directly to the master control center and Schriever Air Force Base, also in Colorado Springs.