While world attention is focused on Ukraine and Iraq, the nations surrounding the Arctic Circle have been quietly flexing their polar muscle.
Russia has revealed plans to re-open polar airfields and naval bases on remote islands, while Canada has used the summer light to train its troops in the region. For those two countries, exercises in the higher latitudes are fairly straightforward, with their significant air assets and—if necessary—limited land access.
But for Denmark, which is responsible for the defense of the world’s second-largest island, Greenland, Arctic operations are considerably more challenging. However, the Danish government is keen to exert its sovereignty as the ice retreats and the region becomes more accessible.
While Greenland is mostly autonomous, Denmark looks after the island’s foreign and defense policy, although its capabilities for the latter are limited partly because of the huge distance between them. The two capitals, Copenhagen and Nuuk, are 1,900 nm. apart.
Currently, the Danish air force carries out sovereignty patrols and fishery protection flights over Greenland for about two weeks every month, while Lockheed C-130J Hercules are deployed to support the Sirius Sledge Patrol, a Danish navy unit that works in pairs to enforce sovereignty in the vast national parks in the northeast of the island. The C-130flights air drop supplies to the patrols, breaking the monotony of a lonely existence in the high north.
The extraordinary environment of Greenland makes for fantastic flying, but survival could be a challenge in the event of an ejection. Credit: John Kristensen/Royal Danish Air Force
But Denmark now wants to enhance its capabilities in Greenland, to prove it can deliver more military assets to the island if needed, sending a significant message to other Arctic nations. Perhaps the most challenging of these demonstrations came in August, when it conducted a three-day-long deployment of three Royal Danish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons to Kangerlussuaq (Sondrestrom) airport in western Greenland—the first time the air arm had dispatched fighters to the country.
“This deployment uncovered a number of issues we need to address if we had to deploy the F-16 to Greenland,” said Maj. John Kristensen, deputy commander of 730 Esk and detachment commander for the deployment, speaking to Aviation Week at the Belgian Air Force airshow at Kleine Brogel Sept. 13.
The Danish air force already has hangarage and facilities at -Kangerlussuaq, which have mainly supported visits from the Hercules and Bombardier Challenger aircraft, never fighters.
“We had to deploy all the equipment for F-16 operations, emergency cables for the runways, and also bring our own liquid oxygen, as they do not produce that in Greenland,” he added.
Kristensen and his pilots also had to consider their survival. Extra layers of clothing were adopted, and operations—particularly over water, including a 700-mi. flight between Kangerlussuaq and the U.S. airbase at Thule—saw the F-16s escorted by a Challenger CL604 multi-mission aircraft fitted with satellite communications, something the F-16s did not have. The Challenger also has the ability to drop a life raft to a downed pilot, supporting him for up to 12 hr. until help—likely in the form of a nearby ship—can pick him up. Rescue by helicopter in the region is unlikely because of the huge distances involved.
Kristensen says there are now plans for a larger-scale exercise, which could see 6-8 F-16s deployed for 2-3 weeks sometime between spring and fall 2015. A key part of such a deployment will be to use the Litening G4 targeting pod to assist Danish cartographers to produce updated shipping charts for Greenland’s eastern coastline.
The Litening pods will use their geo-location capability to plot points along the coast that the mapmakers can combine with satellite imagery to produce more accurate charts This will improve safety for shipping along the eastern coastline, a key concern  for Danish officials, as the number of cruise ships sailing Arctic waters increases every year.
Recogizing that a Challenger isn’t always available for missions in Greenland, officials are in the process of modifying the Hercules with a pylon that could carry an EO/IR camera or targeting pod, allowing the aircraft to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconaissance missions. However Denmark’s four-strong Hercules fleet is already under pressure supporting deployments elsewhere, including in Mali. Operations to Greenland once represented 80% of the mission load of the Danish Hercules fleet, but in the early 2000s this fell to as low as 20%; this is now being re-balanced as the focus turns back to Greenland.
“Operations to Greenland are similar to distances to the southern Sahara,” says Col. Karsten Jensen, head of the Danish Transport Wing, speaking at the Military Airlift Conference in London Sept. 16.
“But this is a national mission on a strategic scale . . . there is appetite to do more of this and send a political signal,” he added.