Pentagon to start expanding Greenland bases next year: official

A Royal Danish Air Force transport plane stands on the tarmac next to a hangar of the Joint Arctic Command on July 14, 2026, in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The U.S. is looking at upgrades to support cargo, fighter aircraft, and more troops.

The Pentagon is spending the winter evaluating options for expanding U.S. basing in Greenland, according to a senior defense official, with an eye toward breaking ground on new facilities next year.

The Trump administration announced in September that military outposts at Mestersvig and Narsarsuaq would become U.S. bases, while expanding the existing U.S. footprint at Pituffik Space Base .

“Right now we're in a planning cycle because we're going to run out of execution window, from a weather perspective, to do anything almost immediately,” a senior defense official told reporters at a Tuesday event hosted by the Project on Media and National Security. The official spoke on background because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.

The moves come nearly two years after President Donald Trump, who had sought to purchase the independently-governed Danish territory in his first term, began suggesting that the United States might seize Greenland by force. In January, Trump sought to force a sale with threats to invade the island and impose punitive tariffs on Denmark and other NATO allies. Instead, he settled for expanding a 1951 treaty that allows the U.S. to base forces in Greenland.

Mestersvig, to start, has a 6,000-foot gravel runway, the official said, and has primarily hosted special operations forces.

“And so, as we talk with the teams…what are the options that you need on the northeastern side or on the eastern side of Greenland? What kind of capabilities? What do you want that to do? So we're having that conversation back and forth there,” the official said.

For Narsarsuag in the south, they’re looking at what kinds of upgrades the runway needs to support modern U.S. aircraft.

“So if it's capable of putting in C-130s, great. If I needed to put fighter aircraft in there for some reason…what would that take? How would I expand it?” the official said.

At this point, the official added, the Pentagon is looking less at housing specific capabilities and looking first at what’s even possible, both for equipment and for people.

“If I needed to create a capability and I needed to put people into a location for a period of time, what do I need to think about? I need to think about lodging, I need to think about food. I need to think about energy,” the official said. “So it's all of those types of things, not necessarily a, ‘Hey, I want to station this there right now.’ That's not where we're at in that conversation. We're more in the, ‘that location has this,’ and to the degree that I can do that by making strategic investments, that's smart.”

NEXT STORY: State Department orders staff to call AI ‘super intelligence’

2026年7月14日，一架丹麦皇家空军运输机停在格陵兰岛坎格尔路斯瓦格联合北极司令部机库旁的停机坪上。图片来源：Sean Gallup/Getty Images

美国正在考虑升级改造，以支持货物运输、战斗机运输和增派部队。

据一位高级国防官员透露，五角大楼正在利用冬季评估扩大美国在格陵兰岛军事基地的各种方案，目标是明年破土动工兴建新设施。

特朗普政府于 9 月宣布，梅斯特斯维格和纳尔萨克的军事前哨将成为美国基地，同时扩大美国在皮图菲克太空基地的现有存在。

一位高级国防官员周二在由媒体与国家安全项目主办的活动上告诉记者：“目前我们正处于计划阶段，因为从天气角度来看，我们几乎没有时间立即采取行动。”这位官员要求匿名发言，因为他没有被授权公开谈论这些计划。

这些举措距离唐纳德·特朗普总统开始暗示美国可能武力夺取格陵兰岛已近两年。特朗普在其第一任期内曾试图购买这块独立管辖的丹麦领土。今年1月，特朗普威胁要入侵格陵兰岛并对丹麦和其他北约盟国征收惩罚性关税，试图迫使格陵兰岛出售。最终，他选择扩大1951年一项允许美国在格陵兰岛驻军的条约。

这位官员表示，梅斯特斯维格空军基地最初只有一条 6000 英尺长的砾石跑道，主要驻扎特种作战部队。

“所以，当我们和各团队讨论时……你们在格陵兰岛东北部或东部需要哪些选项？需要什么样的能力？你们希望它发挥什么作用？所以我们一直在就此进行反复讨论，”这位官员说道。

对于南部的纳尔萨苏阿格机场，他们正在研究跑道需要进行哪些升级才能支持现代美国飞机。

“所以，如果它能容纳C-130运输机，那就太好了。如果我出于某种原因需要在那里放置战斗机……那需要什么条件？我该如何扩建？”这位官员说道。

这位官员补充说，目前五角大楼不再着眼于安置特定能力，而是首先考虑装备和人员方面有哪些可能性。

“如果我需要建立某种能力，并且需要在某个地点驻扎一段时间，我需要考虑哪些方面？我需要考虑住宿、食物和能源，”这位官员说道。“所以，所有这些都需要考虑，而不是‘嘿，我现在就想把这个部署在那里’。我们讨论的重点不是这个。我们更关注的是‘那个地点具备哪些条件’，如果我能通过战略投资来实现这一点，那才是明智之举。”

下一篇报道：国务院命令工作人员将人工智能称为“超级智能”