Space Heritage – North America’s Polar Shield: The DEW Line
PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. -- In the early years of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force had a problem--it lacked early warning capabilities that could detect Soviet nuclear bombers flying towards North America from the North Pole. At the time, the Air Force needed three to six hours of advanced warning to disperse Strategic Air Command bombers, launch air-defense interceptors, and implement civil defense measures. The issue was brought to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Summer Study Group in 1952, where a team of 20 engineers and scientists examined US radar shortfalls and ultimately recommended the construction of Distant Early Waring Line Radars that would stretch across the 69th parallel, from the northwest corner of Alaska, to Baffin Island on the east coast of Canada. An early warning system employed at this latitude would give the Air Force hours to prepare for nuclear strikes, but quickly building this complex line of automated radar systems across the desolate Arctic landscape was easier said than done.
Comparable 1950s radar sites required several hundred personnel per station to maintain and operate the equipment. However, stationing thousands of operators in remote Arctic radar outposts, with limited air and sealift opportunities, was logistically impractical. To successfully field the DEW Line system, the Air Force first needed to develop a rugged radar system capable of autonomously detecting and verifying incoming attacks, while surviving harsh Arctic winters with a crew of no more than ten. Dr. F. Robert Naka and MIT’s Project Lincoln were contracted to deliver ten of these new DEW radar sets by April 30th, 1953, less than a year after the Summer Study was published. Lincoln engineers ultimately modified existing AN/TPS-1D L-band systems and worked with Bell Telephone Laboratories to integrate a new antenna for improved range and altitude performance. This modified DEW radar was designated the AN/FPS-19.
Fortunately, the formal procurement procedures of today did not exist for the project; the development and deployment of the radars followed a simple pattern that had evolved…during World War II: ‘get it done.’
-Dr. F. Robert Naka and Dr. William W. Ward
By 1954, the Air Force completed prototype testing on the AN/FPS-19 from radar sites in Alaska, and readied for construction activities across northern Canada. The Air Force also contracted with the Western Electric Company to simultaneously perform site surveys across the Arctic while construction began in Alaska. Surveyors utilized airplanes, snowmobiles and dog sleds to traverse distant and inhospitable polar regions to complete their work within the year.
The US and Canadian Armed Forces also provided extensive logistical support, delivering materials and equipment to remote polar outposts by air, sea, and land. Ultimately, the crews built six main stations, 23 auxiliary stations, and 28 intermediate sites across 3,000 miles in only two brief polar summers.
On July 31, 1957, the United States and Canada declared the DEW Line fully operational. The enormous undertaking was conceived, tested, built, and deemed operational in only five years, and was only made possible by bilateral cooperation between the United States and Canada, and civil collaboration with MIT, the Bell Telephone Company, and the Western Electric Company. The DEW Line remained operational until 1993, when it was replaced by the North Warning System.
The black dots represent DEW Line radar site locations. The DEW Line was further expanded between 1957 and 1961 to the Aleutian Islands and Greenland. The DEW Line worked in conjunction with radar sites across central and southern Canada, known as the Mid-Canada and Pinetree Line. These early warning radar systems were networked through the Semi-Automated Ground Environment (SAGE) computer system and controlled by North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). (Image courtesy of the Canadian Department of National Defence)
The FOX-5 Auxiliary Radar Station at Broughton Island, Canada. These radar sites could only detect aircraft and not Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was fielded in 1960 to address this shortfall. (Photo courtesy of Brian Jeffrey)
The US Navy used LCMs to deliver steel, fuel and food to construction sites on Baffin Island, Canada (Photo courtesy of National Geographic Magazine)
A resupply aircraft is towed back to the make-shift arctic runway at site CAM-D, Simpson Lake, Canada in the early 1960s. After construction was complete, crews assigned to radar sites along the DEW Line relied on special air and sealift for resupply and transportation. (Photo courtesy of Brian Jeffrey, DEWLineAdventures.com)
A technician manning the console at the FOX-Main station, Hall Beach, Canada (Photo courtesy of DEWLineAdventures.com)
The AN/FPS-19 at site POW-2, located in Oliktok Point, Alaska. The solid radome does not interfere with radar frequencies and was designed to shield the rotating AN/FPS-19 from wind, ice, and frigid temperatures. MIT Lincoln engineers developed this radome in 1952 and it is still manufactured and used today.