For the first time, the United States Navy deployed one of its E-6B Mercury command aircraft to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, with the objective of reinforcing surveillance in the Arctic. The move comes in a context of growing geopolitical tensions between Washington and Moscow, reflected in the verbal exchanges between former President Donald Trump and Dmitry Medvedev, current vice chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has historically attracted the interest of various powers due to its strategic value. In 2019, Trump even publicly expressed his intention to acquire the island, under the argument of protecting national and international security in the face of the expansion of Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic.
Pituffik Space Base, located in northwestern Greenland, constitutes a key stronghold for U.S. defense. There operates the Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR), essential for detecting and tracking intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launches, integrating the Pentagon’s global early warning network.
The E-6B Mercury, deployed from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, is part of the fleet operated by Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons VQ-3 “Ironmen” and VQ-4 “Shadows,” with support from VQ-7 “Roughnecks,” under Strategic Communications Wing One. It is the last variant produced from the Boeing 707 airframe, adapted for strategic command and control missions.
To sustain the fleet’s operability, the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman the Integrated Modification and Maintenance Contract (IMMC), valued at $111 million and valid until 2027. This program includes Block II modernization, which introduces six upgrades aimed at increasing command, control, and communications capabilities, as well as reducing intervention time from nearly two years to just six months.
In parallel, the Navy is preparing to begin the progressive replacement of the Mercury with the E-130J Phoenix II. Officially unveiled in October 2024, the Phoenix II will assume the TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) mission starting in fiscal year 2026. Although the E-6B will remain operational until the 2030s, the transition generates uncertainty regarding the future of the Looking Glass mission, given that the new model will be focused exclusively on communications with strategic submarines and will not feature the airborne launch control system.
Finally, on Monday, the E-6B deployed at Pituffik was detected flying over the Labrador Sea, off Greenland’s western coast, in a flight that lasted several hours. Researcher Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, described the operation as “unusual.”
For its part, the U.S. Navy confirmed on Thursday the presence of the airborne command post in Greenland, describing the mission as part of “routine operations” and of a training cycle that includes joint exercises with nuclear submarines deployed in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
*Original text written in Spanish by Sofia Celiz
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