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Greenland radars vulnerable to hypersonic missiles, critics warn

This white golf ball like structure houses one of several radars that scan the skies for foreign military rockets and missiles at Thule Air Base, Greenland. (Photo by JoAnne Castagna, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

By Michael Peck

Since the early days of the Cold War, the early warning radars on Greenland have been a linchpin for defending North America against nuclear attack by intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But the radars themselves are vulnerable to attack by hypersonic missiles, critics warn. U.S. bases in Greenland can neither detect those missiles, nor shoot them down.

“The U.S. does not have a standing integrated air and missile defense shooter layer in Greenland today,” Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska, told Defense News.

Read more at Defense News

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