NORAD’s Alaskan Command has deployed U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from Eielson Air Force Base through Canada toward Greenland under Operation Arctic Vanguard 26-4.2. The exercise, running from 13 to 26 September, is designed to test rapid movement, sustainment and combat airpower employment across the Arctic, with support from Royal Canadian Air Force strategic airlift and KC-135 aerial refuelling.
The F-16s are staging through Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, before forward deployment into Greenland for operations with partners from the Kingdom of Denmark and NATO. NORAD released imagery from 16 September showing an F-16 and a KC-135 refuelling over Greenland, confirming the exercise’s Greenland-linked element.
The operation is intended to validate agile combat employment in austere, sub-zero conditions and to strengthen the ability to defend North America’s northern approaches. It also underscores a multinational Arctic mobility chain linking Alaska, Canada, Greenland and allied forces in a live operational setting.