For the Greenland civilian settlement, see Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality, located at the head of a fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub, being the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport....

Sondrestrom Air Base (Bluie West-8) is a former United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 base in Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, located 60 mi (96.6 km) north of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

, 90 mi (144.8 km) from the northeast end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord

Kangerlussuaq Fjord

Kangerlussuaq Fjord is a long fjord in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The fjord is long and between and wide, flowing from the estuary of Qinnguata Kuussua river to the southwest, and emptying into Davis Strait...

 (then: ), after which it was named, approximately 11 mi (17.7 km) west northwest of Ravneklippen, and 70 mi (112.7 km) west of Sisimiut

Sisimiut

Sisimiut is a town in central-western Greenland, located on the coast of Davis Strait, approximately north of Nuuk. It is the administrative center of the Qeqqata Municipality and the second-largest town in Greenland, with a population of 5,460 people as of 2010. The site of the present-day town...

.

The base was turned over to the Greenland government in 1992 and is now a civilian community (Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality, located at the head of a fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub, being the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport....

) and airport (Kangerlussuaq Airport

Kangerlussuaq Airport

Kangerlussuaq Airport is an airport in Kangerlussuaq, a settlement in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. Alongside Narsarsuaq Airport, it is one of only two civilian airports in Greenland large enough to handle large airliners, having more stable weather, being located further...

), although the USAF operates a small Air National Guard

Air National Guard

The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...

 detachment in the former base.

Names

• Established on 20 October 1941 and named Bluie West Eight (BW-8)

Renamed: Sondrestromfjord Army Air Base, 1945

Renamed: Sondrestromfjord Air Base, 25 October 1947

Renamed: Sondrestrom Air Base, 10 January 1952

Base operating units

• 417th Base HQ & Air Base Squadron, 26 September 1942
• 1385th Army Air Force Base Unit, 1 October 1945
• 1004th Air Base Squadron (redesignated: 1234th Air Base Squadron, 1 October 1948), 1 June 1948
• Greenland Base Command, 21 June 1949-9 October 1950
• 6621st Air Base Squadron, 20 July 1951
• 6621st Air Base Group, 25 September 1955
• 4084th Air Base Group, 1 April 1957
• 4684th Air Base Group, 1 July 1960—1 June 1992
• 1015th Air Base Squadron, a subordinate unit to the 1012th Air Base Group at Thule, was the unit designation from at least October 89 to closing in September 92

Major commands to which assigned

• First United States Army, 15 January 1941
• Eastern Defense Command
  Eastern Defense Command
  Eastern Defense Command was established on 17 March 1941 as the command formation of the U.S. Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Atlantic Coast region of the United States. EDC replaced the existing Northeast Defense Command. A second major responsibility of EDC was the training...
  
   (U.S. Army), 12 December 1942
• Air Transport Command
  Air Transport Command
  Air Transport Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its mission was to meet the urgent demand for the speedy reinforcement of the United States' military bases worldwide during World War II, using an air supply system to supplement surface transport...
  
  , 1 January 1946
• Military Air Transport Service
  Military Air Transport Service
  The Military Air Transport Service is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy Naval Air Transport Service and the United States Air Force Air Transport Command into a single, joint, unified command...
  
  , 1 April 1948
• Northeast Air Command
  Northeast Air Command
  The Northeast Air Command was a short-lived organization in the United States Air Force tasked with the operation and defense of air bases in Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland. It was formed in 1950 from the facilities of the United States established during World War II in Northeast Canada,...
  
  , 1-9 October 1950; 20 July 1951
• Strategic Air Command
  Strategic Air Command
  The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
  
  , 1 April 1957
• Air Defense (redesignated: Aerospace Defense) Command, 15 January 1968
• Strategic Air Command
  Strategic Air Command
  The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
  
  , 1 December 1979-1 June 1992
• Air Force Space Command
  Air Force Space Command
  Air Force Space Command is a major command of the United States Department of the Air Force, with its headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. AFSPC supports U.S. military operations worldwide through the use of many different types of satellite, launch and cyber operations....
  
   from at least October 89 to September 92 closing

.Note: Base not under United States Control 9 October 1950-20 July 1951

Operations

Sondrestrom Air Base was founded on 7 October 1941, at the east end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord

Kangerlussuaq Fjord

Kangerlussuaq Fjord is a long fjord in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The fjord is long and between and wide, flowing from the estuary of Qinnguata Kuussua river to the southwest, and emptying into Davis Strait...

, under the supervision of Colonel Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen, , a winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross was a Norwegian native, and later U.S. citizen, known as a pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. His service in the U.S...

 of the United States Army Air Forces

United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....

 (USAAF).

Use of the northernmost Bluie West 8 field in Greenland involved a l,000-mile hop from Goose Bay, Labrador but provided an alternate landing site when the weather was bad in southern Greenland. A few planes arrived at Bluie West 8 from the Western U.S. via the Crimson route, a line of fields stretching from Manitoba to Baffin Island in northern Canada that the Canadians and the North Atlantic Division of the Corps built
in 1942 and 1943.

All told, 920 warplanes attempted the North Atlantic crossing during 1942, and with the aid of the fields built by the Corps, 882, or roughly 95 percent, arrived safely. Air ferry traffic peaked in 1944 when some 5,900 planes successfully crossed the North Atlantic.

Following the fall of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, responsibility for the security of Greenland passed to the American military. Military leaders responded by building several bases in Greenland, the largest of which were Bluie West One in Narsarsuaq

Narsarsuaq

Narsarsuaq is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 158 inhabitants in 2010. There is a thriving tourism industry in and around Narsarsuaq, whose attractions include a great diversity of wildlife, gemstones, tours to glaciers, and an airfield museum...

 in southern Greenland and Bluie West Eight, at the Kangerlussuaq fjord.

The base returned briefly to Danish control in 1950, but following mounting concerns about the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 threat, a renewed agreement saw the United States reopen Bluie West Eight up under the name of Sondrestrom Air Base on 27 April 1951.

It served as one of the Distant Early Warning Line

Distant Early Warning Line

The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...

 bases and a supply station for similar early warning facilities. Following the fall of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 the usefulness of the base was greatly diminished and the last U.S. Air Force personnel left the base on 30 September 1992.

Rocket launches

Since 1971, rockets such as the Nike Apache

Nike Apache

The Nike Apache was a two-stage sounding rocket used by NASA to loft instruments into the upper atmosphere. The Nike Apache was launched 636 times between 1961 and 1978...

, Petrel

Petrel (rocket)

The Petrel was a British sounding rocket. The Petrel 1 was launched, like the Skua 1, with 3 Chick booster rockets. The Chick motors were fitted in a Booster Carriage that also carried the two parachutes that brought it back to earth for re-use. The Petrel 1 was 3.34 m long, had a diameter of...

, Nike Tomahawk

Nike Tomahawk

The Nike Tomahawk was a two stage American sounding rocket. The first stage was a Nike rocket, the second a Tomahawk rocket.The Nike Tomahawk has a ceiling of 230 statute miles , a payload capacity of 100 pounds , a launch thrust of 49,000 pounds of force , a launch weight of 2,200 pounds , a...

, Black Brant

Black Brant (rocket)

The Black Brant is a Canadian-designed sounding rocket built by Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over 800 Black Brants of various versions have been launched since they were first produced in 1961, and the type remains one of the most popular sounding rockets ever built...

, Terrier Malemute, Taurus Orion

Taurus Orion

Taurus Orion is the designation of a two-stage sounding rocket, consisting of a Taurus starting stage and an Orion upper stage. The Taurus Orion has a ceiling of 200 km, a takeoff thrust of 457.00 kN, a takeoff weight of 2000 kg, a diameter of 0.58 m and a length of 11.40 m....

, Terrier Malemute and Taurus Nike Tomahawk TNT have been launched from a site close to Kangerlussuaq (specifically, at 67°01′23"N 050°35′49"W) for examinations of the upper atmosphere.

Launch List

Date	Vehicle	Mission	Results
22 August 1971	Nike-Apache	(DK)	S (225 km)
24 August 1971	Nike-Apache	(DK)	S (225 km)
10 December 1972	Nike-Tomahawk	(DK)	S (300 km)
2 July 1974	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.156IE/UE	S (235 km)
8 July 1974	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.157IE/UE	S (235 km)
17 December 1974	Black Brant IV	(GER) MPI	S (595 km)
17 December 1974	Petrel	(UK) P86G	S (175 km)
17 December 1974	Petrel	(UK) P87G	S (170 km)
18 December 1974	Black Brant IV	(GER) MPI	S (550 km)
18 December 1974	Nike-Tomahawk	(DK)	E (20 km)
18 December 1974	Petrel	(UK) P166G	S (170 km)
18 December 1974	Petrel	(UK) P167G	S (170 km)
11 January 1975	Black Brant IV	(GER) MPI	S (610 km)
22 August 1976	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.209IE CUSP II	S
27 August 1976	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.210IE SEC II	S
23 January 1985	Terrier-Malemute	NASA 29.023UE	S
23 January 1985	Black Brant X	NASA 35.009UE	S
10 February 1985	Terrier-Malemute	NASA 29.015UE	S
10 February 1985	Black Brant X	NASA 35.012UE TOPAZ	S
5 March 1985	Taurus-Orion	NASA 33.044UE	S
15 March 1985	Black Brant IX	AFGL A21.426
20 March 1985	Taurus-Tomahawk	NASA 34.006UE	S
20 March 1985	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.219UE	S
26 February 1987	Terrier-Malemute	NASA 29.025UE	S
26 February 1987	Black Brant IX	AFGL A21.628
5 March 1987	Terrier-Malemute	NASA 29.026UE	S
5 March 1987	Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 38.012UE	S
21 March 1987	Taurus-Tomahawk	NASA 34.014UE	S
21 March 1987	Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 18.220UE	S
21 March 1987	Black Brant VIII?IX	AFGL A19.426
31 March 1987	Black Brant IX	NASA 36.014UE COPE II	S (436 km)
31 March 1987	Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 38.010UE COPE II	S (467 km)
31 March 1987	Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk	NASA 38.011UE COPE II	S (441 km)

External links