Dr. Troy J. Bouffard: ‘We’re in a New Era of Threats’

Dr. Troy J. Bouffard said that hypersonic cruise missiles are the “threat of our future decades,” adding that the fight to protect against hypersonic cruise missiles will involve all of the North American Arctic.

While Bouffard said the hypersonic cruise missiles are a threat of the future, he said there is “no evidence” of a military threat from Russia or China that would result in a potential takeover of Greenland.

Bouffard is an assistant professor of Arctic Security in the College of Business and Security Management at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where he has been since 2014. He also directs UAF’s Center for Arctic Security and Resilience, which focuses on strategic and operational challenges to the Arctic region’s national security.

Bouffard was a research fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, and a former congressional fellow and Arctic advisor to Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. He has contributed to projects ranging from the Arctic Council EPPR, the Arctic Report of the Munich Security Conference, and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Reports, according to his biography page at UAF.

Bouffard said that the race to the Arctic, specifically Greenland, between the United States, Russia, and China, is not necessarily about wanting the territory, but rather having meaningful aspects in the region, which creates a divide in the reasons the nations would use the region.

“For the United States, it’s about national security through national defense, North American missile defense, important roles like that,” Bouffard said. “China, it was about gaining access through different economic opportunities, which failed both the United States and China, eyeing elements. Russia doesn’t really have much interest in Greenland as a territory, but as part of the GIUK [Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom] gap, that is quite important to Russia’s strategic sub fleet.”

He said the U.S. interest in Greenland is “absolute and real,” and China is interested in the economic benefits of the region, specifically, the mining and rare earth metals and elements.

When it comes to the driving force of U.S. interest in the region, national security, Bouffard said hypersonic cruise missiles are a “new era of threats,” and the U.S. and Canada will have to work together to build a new defense system to combat them.

“The current system that was built, established for Cold War ballistic missiles, which still exist, was a completely different system,” Bouffard said. “It will not work against hypersonic cruise missiles. So, we have to redo the entire approach to this, what has been known as the Golden Dome.”

One week after his inauguration for his second term, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14186, announcing the initiative of creating the Golden Dome.

“The Golden Dome will include space-based interceptors and sensors,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a May 20, 2025, statement. “Some U.S. technology in space, such as space-based sensors and air and missile defense exist today, but all of the systems comprising the Golden Dome architecture will need to be seamlessly integrated. Golden Dome will be fielded in phases, prioritizing defense where the threat is greatest.”

Unlike ballistic missiles, which, when launched, go into outer space and re-enter in a predictable arc, hypersonic cruise missiles do not have to leave orbit and do not have a predictable arc, according to Bouffard. Additionally, hypersonic cruise missiles can be launched by air, land, and sea, whereas ballistic missiles are land-launched.

“The role of Greenland and what was Thule Air Force Base, which is now Pituffik Space Force Base, has changed fundamentally,” Bouffard said. “Because of the nature of hypersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from anywhere and everywhere in the Arctic pretty effectively, that really complicates the picture and the options. Whereas shooting over Greenland to North America wasn’t very practical, it was a little longer of a vector, now that’s not really the case. We’re going to need Greenland to take on that role of detection.”

The Pituffik Space Base, formerly the Thule Air Force Base, was established in 1951 following the agreement between the U.S. and Denmark known as the Defense of Greenland Agreement.

The base serves an “important role” and is going to become a “pretty valuable target,” according to Bouffard. Due to the importance of the base, he said it will be a more important target against our foreign adversaries, stressing the importance of protecting it.

“With this Space Force base, they’ve got a large radar system already there for ballistic missile purposes, and they can detect other things in the aerospace,” Bouffard said. “It’s just going to have to expand.”

Bouffard added that although there is “no evidence” of a potential military threat from Russia and China, China has had an interest in the economic opportunities.

“We’ve seen some interest from China trying to engage and entrench themselves economically like they do elsewhere in the world, trying to take care of a vulnerable population or society or country, entrench themselves,” said Bouffard. “That didn’t work at all.”

He said the way China’s ability to conduct itself the way they do elsewhere is “not going to work in the Arctic,” and the chance of China’s success in the region is “very, very low.”

As for Russia, there is “really no evidence” of Russia “snooping” around Greenland now; however, he said there are expectations that they will.

“We start putting up new critical military defense infrastructure anywhere, including Greenland or whatever, adversaries will start snooping around,” Bouffard said. “Eventually, yes, the expectation is there will be China and Russia snooping around there [Greenland]. Right now, there is none.”

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.