In pursuit of nuclear deterrence, the U.S. occasionally crosses the line to make plans that seem better suited to James Bond movies than the defense budget, but few are as crazy as the Ice Worms.
Throughout the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were caught up in a steady race not only for the most capable and powerful nuclear weapons, but also for new methods of delivery. Both world Powers know that any nuclear attack could begin with a strike against the nuclear arsenals of the other state in order to limit its ability to respond in kind. As a result, enormous efforts have been made to move, hide or otherwise protect huge nuclear weapons from attack.
While the Soviets invested in armored trains that could transport large intercontinental ballistic missiles around Siberia and Frankenstein helicopter devices capable of transporting huge nuclear payloads to distant launch sites, they were not the only nuclear attacks close to bond villains. Also out of fear of nuclear annihilation, the United States is seeking increasingly novel methods of nuclear war, sometimes even on foreign territory.
Nuclear ulterior motives
Around 1960, Minuteman missiles were assembled at the Air Force's 77 factory. (U.S. Air Force photo)
While the Russian military has been doing its best in recent years to protect and fortify large areas of the Arctic Circle, the concept of a cold north as a battlefield is certainly nothing new. In many cases, the shortest distance between U.S. and Russian weapons systems and targets is over the North-Arctic Circle. Therefore, the scramble for position in the Arctic seems to be a strategic necessity.
It was with this concept in mind that the United States reached an agreement with the Danish government in 1960 to begin building a large military installation beneath the ice of North Greenland. According to the Pentagon, the plan that will lead to the construction of Camp of the Century has many important goals: to test various construction methods in the Arctic environment, to assess the power generation uses of semi-mobile nuclear reactors, and to support ongoing scientific experiments in the region. Of course, in a true Cold War approach, these seemingly logical goals are more about cover than about progress.
The real intent behind this new initiative is to build a series of sprawling tunnels under ice to support the storage, transportation, and launch of specially designed nuclear ballistic missiles, known as the Ice Bug Program. To that end, using tunnels in the ice, the United States could fire a batch of nuclear weapons from under the ice at their Soviet adversaries, while moving missiles frequently, making it nearly impossible for the Soviets to defend against or even attack missile placements.
Century Camp: A fixture and a cover story
Century Battalion (U.S. Army photo)
Located less than a thousand miles from the North Pole, the ambient temperature in the area that will become Camp of the Century averages below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and common temperatures as high as -70 degrees. At the time, the average snowfall in the area was four feet per year, and gusts were raging at 70 miles per hour. As a result, it is almost impossible to build military installations on the surface of the North Greenland ice sheet.
Beginning in 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began using a method known as "digging and burying" to dig a 2-mile tunnel under the ice sheet in northern Greenland. This method uses a large Rotary Cultivator made in Switzerland to dig large trenches in the snow and ice. After the ditch was dug, an arched steel roof was placed above the new ditch and then buried again.
Century Battalion (U.S. Army) in 1964
Under vaulted steel roofs and layers of ice and snow, the U.S. Army has built what is actually tunnels that can be used to build workspaces, housing, and even recreational activity areas — in addition to the expected six hundred nuclear missiles and all the accompanying equipment needed to secretly plan ice worms.
The facility was powered by the PM-2A, the world's first semi-mobile nuclear generator, although as the project progressed and problems were complicated, the nuclear generator was replaced with more traditional diesel equipment.
In 1964 Century Camp's northeast gateway, the base was abandoned shortly before. (U.S. Army)
The under-ice workspace expanded rapidly, and by the end of 1960, Century Camp included an area known as Main Street, which was more than 1,100 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 30 feet high, as well as barracks facilities, a chapel, a basic library, a full gymnasium, and even a movie theater. Facilities for each barracks include a large common area and five separate rooms that are separated from the surrounding ice by air gaps to minimize melting caused by heating inside the rooms. Deep holes are drilled in the ice sheet to provide a fresh source of cold air, which also helps control melting.
At its peak, Camp Century housed more than 200 soldiers hiding in the bitter cold of an ice-covered outside world.
Ice Bug Program
(U.S. Army)
Of course, all this manpower and technology isn't just about testing the feasibility of conducting military operations in the bitter cold, and the U.S. Ice Worm Program is the real driving force behind that effort. From the deployment of the PM-2A nuclear reactor to the logistical efforts to establish a stable and often covert supply line for the facility, it was all about assessing the viability of the ice shelf as a launch pad for nuclear weapons.
The long-term plan calls for the construction and maintenance of 2,500 miles of underground tunnels to store 600 specially modified medium-range nuclear missiles, known as The Iceman missiles. These missiles were developed by modifying the U.S. Air Force's existing inventory of Minuteman missiles for use in extremely cold conditions.
Layout of Century Camp (Wikimedia Commons)
Many of these tunnels will house rails that can be used to quickly and easily transport large missiles from one place to another, while the team will be responsible for digging and reinforcing new tunnels each year. Each new tunnel will provide a new location to store or launch missiles, making it nearly impossible to track or access underground arsenals.
If fully realized, the Tunnel Complex of the Ice Bug Program would eventually cover about 53,000 square miles and employ up to 11,000 military personnel. In terms of context, the entire of South Korea covers only about 39,000 square miles.
Remove the ice cubes from under your feet
Century Battalion (U.S. Army)
While the strategic value of the large underground missile complex was easy to determine, the challenges of building and maintaining military installations beneath the surface of the ice sheet soon exceeded expectations. While the Department of Defense considers the ice to be fairly stationary and stable, the truth is that even the huge Texas-sized ice sheet they built is a very dynamic environment.
By 1962, the ceiling of the room where the Century Camp reactor was located had been lowered by 5 feet, and expensive repairs had to be made to maintain operations. Soon, the core samples collected confirmed the urgent concerns of the scientists involved: the ice sheet was moving so fast that the entire device could not be used in just a few years.
In 1963, nuclear reactors were replaced by diesel generators, and the U.S. dream of building a huge underground missile complex in Greenland was nearly dashed. By 1965, the facility was abandoned until 1969, when it was revisited by a team of experts to assess its condition.
The Ice Bug Program has been kept secret since its inception, and according to the conclusions provided by the team, that secrecy will remain the same due to the development of heavy snow and ice in the region. Importantly, as far as the Ministry of Defense is concerned, large amounts of equipment, diesel and even nuclear waste are left in abandoned tunnels, swallowed up forever by Arctic ice.
Of course, "forever" is a long period of time, and as we discovered decades later, the ice sheet doesn't last as permanently as the world does today. The ice covering the remains of Camp Century continues to shrink due to climate change, and experts estimate that by 2090, all the secrets of America's ice bugs will be exposed — sparking an ongoing debate about who will ultimately be responsible for the cleanup.
"It's only a matter of time," said Mike McFerlin, one of the authors of the 2016 study that first exposed the problem. "When the water reaches this waste and reaches the coast, we have a big problem."