Arctic

A Royal Air Force C-17A Globemaster has landed at Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, situated 1,100 miles inside the Arctic Circle on the northern tip of Canada. The mission marked the first time the RAF has joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on Exercise Polar Puma, part of Operation Boxtop, to resupply the most northerly permanently inhabited settlement on Earth.

Royal Air Force C-17 Globemaster lands at world’s most northerly settlement in landmark Arctic resupply mission with Canada

Located at 82.5 degrees North, CFS Alert serves NATO as a critical signals intelligence base and hosts an important climate change research station. The site is almost entirely encapsulated by Arctic ice, which thaws for only 30 days a year and remains too shallow for resupply vessels, making air delivery via a semi-prepared gravel and […]

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