Distant Early Warning Line - Operations

Operations

The physical part of the DEW Line were the ground stations. It was a "line" only in the sense that overlapping radar beams projected from these stations formed a continuous and invisible screen, miles high, which detected airborne objects the moment that they came within range.

There were three types of stations: small unmanned "gap filler stations" that were checked by ground crews only every few months during the summer; intermediate stations with only a station chief, a cook, and a mechanic; and larger stations that had a variable number of employees and may have had libraries, movie projectors, and other accommodations. The stations used a number of a long-range pulse radar systems known as the AN/FPS-19. The "gaps" between the stations were watched by the directional AN/FPS-23 doppler radar systems, similar to those pioneered only a few years earlier on the Mid-Canada Line. The stations were interconnected by White Alice, a series of radio communications systems that used tropospheric scatter technology.

Like any well-planned community, each main station had its own electricity, water service, heating facilities, homes, work buildings, recreation areas, and roads. But there the similarity ended. The Arctic dictated the appearance of the building, how they were built and even in what direction they faced. Instead of a group of separate buildings, the typical main station was essentially two long, low buildings connected by an enclosed overhead bridge, forming the outline of the letter "H". At one end, set on steel stilts, was the radome - a weather-tight dome covering the radar antenna. Nearby were the huge "reflectors" that provided radio communication with the outside world. Living quarters, recreation facilities, radar and radio equipment, and power and heating plants were are all within the main buildings.

For stations at the western end of the line, buildings at the deactivated Pet-4 US Navy camp at Point Barrow were converted into workshops where prefabricated panels, fully insulated, were assembled to form modular building units 28 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 10 feet high. These modules were put on sleds and drawn to station sites hundreds of miles away by powerful tractors. Each main station had its own airstrip - as close to the buildings as safety regulations and the terrain permitted. Service buildings, garages, connecting roads, storage tanks and perhaps an aircraft hangar completed the community. Drifting snow was a constant menace. Siting engineers and advance parties learned this the hard way when their tents disappeared beneath the snow in a few hours. The permanent "H" shaped buildings at the main stations were always pointed into the prevailing winds and their bridges built high off the ground.

The Early Warning provided was useless against ICBMs and submarine-launched attacks. These were countered and tempered by the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) philosophy. However, the scenario of a coordinated airborne invasion coupled with a limited nuclear strike was the real threat that this line protected against. It did so by providing Distant Early Warning of an inbound aerial invasion force, which would have to appear at the far north hours ahead of any warhead launches in order to be coordinated well enough to prevent MAD. A number of intermediate stations were decommissioned, since their effectiveness was judged to be less than desired and required. The manned stations were retained to monitor potential Soviet air activities and to allow Canada to assert sovereignty in the Arctic. International law requires a country that claims territory to actively occupy and defend such territory.

Because the advent of ICBMs created another attack scenario that the DEW Line could not defend against, in 1958 the U.S. Federal Government authorized construction of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS), at a reported cost of $28 billion.

In 1985, it was decided that the more capable of the DEW Line stations were to be upgraded with the GE AN/FPS-117 radar systems and merged with newly-built stations into the North Warning System. Their automation was increased and a number of additional stations were closed. This upgrading was completed in 1990, and with the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US withdrew all of its personnel and relinquished full operation of the Canadian stations to Canada. Costs for the Canadian sector were still subsidized by the US. However, the American flags were lowered at the Canadian stations and only the Canadian flag remained. The US retained responsibility and all operational costs for North Warning System stations located in Alaska and Greenland.