RAF C-17 Lands at World’s Northernmost Settlement

RAF C-17 lands at world’s northernmost settlement

A Royal Air Force C-17A Globemaster has landed at Canadian Forces Station Alert, the world’s most northerly permanently inhabited settlement, during a joint resupply mission with Canada in the High Arctic, the RAF have announced. The aircraft deployed as part of Exercise Polar Puma under Operation Boxtop, supporting efforts to deliver essential supplies to the remote site, located around 1,100 miles inside the Arctic Circle at 82.5 degrees north…

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 compacted snow runway — less than half the length of a standard airport strip — the only viable means of supply…