Line DEW

The line DEW ( D istant E arly W arning ) was a network of stations Radar located in the part Arctique of the Canadian far North , but also on the Northern coast of the Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Faroe Islands, the Greenland and the Iceland. Its objective was to detect any attempt at Soviet intrusion during the Cold war. It became obsolete when the intercontinental ballistic missiles made their appearance.

Line DEW was most powerful of the three Canadian lines and that which was more in north. The Line Pinetree, more to the south, started from Newfoundland to finish on the Vancouver Island. Lastly, between these two lines the Ligne Mid-Canada was.

History

When progress of Soviet technology returned the lines obsolete Pinetree and Mid-Canada, the governments Canadian and American agreed the February 15th 1954 on the construction of a third line of radar tracking stations, this time more at north. This line was to run along the parallel 69ème, with 300 kilometers in the north of the Arctic Cercle. American agreed to pay the cost of the line while using Canadian labor. The majority of the Canadian stations on line DEW were under the responsibility of the royal Aviation of Canada (Canadian Forces after 1968) whereas some were managed jointly with the United States Air Force.

Construction employed twenty-five thousand people. The line consisted of sixty-three stations strewn with the Alaska to the island of Baffin, that is to say on almost ten thousand kilometers. Construction was finished in 1957 and was regarded as a techonologic wonder. The following year, the line became an angular stone of the new organization NORAD of common air defense.

There were three types different of stations:

the automatic small stations which were inspected by plane during the summer months.
intermediate stations with for personnel a commander, a cook and a mechanic.
great stations with a variable number of employees and who could contain a library, a cinema, as well as other distractions.

The stations used a certain number of radars AN/FPS-19 large-waves. The intervals between the stations were scanned by radars directional Doppler AN/FPS-23, similar to those which had equipped the Mid-Canada line a few years earlier. The stations were inter-connected by a series of radio operator communication systems diffusing by the Troposphère.

Shortly after its completion, the line lost most of its interest while appearing ineffective against the ICBM and them attacks by SNLE. Several stations were décommissionnées, but the essence of the device remained active in order to follow the Soviet flying activities and to sit Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

In 1985, the most effective stations of line DEW were improved and joined together with new stations within the North Warning System . Automation was increased and certain stations were closed. With the end of the Cold war in 1990 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, American withdrew all their personnel and left the management of all the Canadian stations in Canada, while keeping the responsibility for the stations located in Alaska and at Greenland.

A controversy intervened between the United States and Canada in connection with the cleaning of the decontaminated sites of line DEW. The stations had indeed produced large quantities of dangerous waste, in particular the Polychloro-biphenyl S (PCB). Whereas the United States insisted on the fact that it was responsibility for Canada to clean the sites which it had under its responsibility, the Canadian government was in disagreement. In 1996, an agreement was found in which the United States took part in height of 100 million dollars for total costs of 600 million.

External bonds

North American Radar
The DEW Line sites in Canada, Alaska and Greenland
DEW Line in Cambridge Bay
yourYukon: Cleaning up the DEW Line
content Canadian - dew line doo doo?
FactsCanada - Feature
Defense Construction Canada
Royal Military College off Canada DEW Line Cleanup Project - Environmental Sciences Group

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