Pilots and ground crew prepare F-35A Lightning II aircraft to participate in Operation Noble Defender at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland. NORAD
At the top of the world, the United States and its allies are enforcing a bottom line: They will deter and defend North America from threats.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) conducted Operation Noble Defender from January 15 through January 31, 2023. Noble Defender is a series of operations that demonstrate the capability and intention to defend North America from attacks along the Arctic avenue of approach. Noble Defender demonstrated that the U.S. and Canada are capable of deploying to austere Arctic forward operating locations (FOL) at high latitudes and developing a globally integrated layered defense (GILD) network across the North American Arctic.
It was the first time the F-35A Lightning II, the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, was deployed to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland in support of the operation, according to a NORAD news release. During Operation Noble Defender, Russia launched its annual polar mission with TU-160 bombers.
Greenland, an island country more than four times the size of Ukraine, is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, has once again become increasingly important to the U.S. and its allies as Russia continues to expand its Arctic footprint. Pituffik is the northernmost U.S. military installation and is strategically positioned to defend against incoming threats — aircraft or missiles — over the Arctic region that could threaten North America. The base is about 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle and about 950 miles from the North Pole, according to archives of the U.S. Air Force Space Command. In October 2022, the U.S. released the National Strategy for the Arctic Region that makes countering the moves of Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a priority as the sea ice melts and shipping lanes open. The Pentagon seeks to increase its presence with allies through military operations such as Noble Defender. The F-35 and other platforms will play a key role in deterring potential threats, especially in the High North. The U.S. intent is to ensure a secure and stable Arctic where all parties respect the rules-based international order.
“Our ability to operate in the Arctic is critical to our ability to defend our homelands,” Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD and USNORTHCOM, said in a news release.
The four Air Force F-35s deployed to Pituffik Space Base for the operation are well suited for the extreme weather mentioned by VanHerck. In testing during the warplane’s development, the stealth fighter was subjected to a range of conditions, including temperatures of minus 40 degrees, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The F-35 is designed to operate in air defense, close air support, tactical bombing and in many other roles. The F-35s participating in Operation Noble Defender are based out of Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska and often operate in the Arctic conditions at Pituffik.
U.S. allies Canada, Denmark and Norway are among the nations buying F-35s as their future mainstay fighters.
This Operation Noble Defender, which NORAD calls a “flexible-response option, dynamic force-employment operation,” also took place in multiple locations in the Arctic, and the coasts of Canada and the U.S. About 225 U.S. and Canadian personnel, as well as aircraft, from all three NORAD regions deployed to Pituffik: Iqaluit Forward Operating Location, Nunavut; 5 Wing Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, according to the NORAD news release. Search and rescue forces honed all aspects of personnel recovery — from testing Arctic recovery equipment to rehearsing the recovery and repatriation of an isolated person, including providing first-aid.
The stealth jets were joined in the operation by Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-18 Hornets, according to a January 31 report by the military news website The War Zone. The site reported that CF-18s from the RCAF’s 3 Wing Bagotville, operating out of Iqaluit Airport in Nunavut in the Canadian North, participated in Noble Defender.
Other air assets involved in Noble Defender included refueling tankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System plane, and CH-149 rescue helicopter, the news release said.
Finally, NORAD fighters conducted an intercept of a U.S. Strategic Command B-52H bomber simulating a threat to demonstrate the command’s ability to conduct real-world GILD operations. RCAF’s
4 Wing from Cold Lake escorted the Stratofortress as it was transiting through northern Canada and the central United States, according to the news release.
“Operation Noble Defender successfully demonstrated our willingness and capability to conduct operations above the Arctic Circle in even the harshest weather conditions,” VanHerck said, “and proved a concept of integration with key Arctic partners to defend northern approaches to North America.”