NORAD Exercises, Space Force Missions: What US Military Does in Greenland

U.S. and Canadian military aircraft are on their way to Greenland for a “long-planned” North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise at a time when the future of the Arctic territory’s sovereignty is in the spotlight. Currently less than 200 Space Force Guardians and Air Force Airmen are based at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, but they perform a key strategic mission for protecting the U.S.

homeland, experts told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The NORAD exercise is a routine activity under the “enduring defense cooperation” agreement between the U.S., Canada and Denmark, which includes Greenland as an autonomous territory, according to a NORAD post on X . But it comes at a sensitive time; President Donald Trump is waging a pressure campaign to acquire the High North territory, creatin