Arctic Distant Early System | The Cold War Era DEW Line. Defending The North American Territory
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- Опубликовано: 27 мар 2023
- The DEW line, or Distant Early System. was a radar system aimed at protecting the North American territory against the Soviet threat.
The creation brought Canada and the United States together, leading to the creation of the North American Air Defense Command, NORAD, in 1958. By the time the Line went active, it consisted of 21 stations established along a transcontinental procession extending for 3,693 statute miles. It took as many as 25,000 people and all sorts of technical and construction skills to fashion the finished product.
In one way the DEW Line had a very short useful life, and in another it still lives and operates in a way we find essential. The effective life of the Line ended with the introduction of intercontinental ballistic missiles. This technology literally took off during 1957 and 1958 with the Soviet R-7, of Sputnik fame, and the American Atlas A. In 1960, the U.S. Navy also perfected the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of 1,200 nautical miles. These missiles could fly far above the DEW Line warning net radars and travel at a rate no aircraft could attain. However, the determination displayed in coming together to survey, design, and build, in a very difficult environment, a defensive barrier against early Soviet nuclear capability demonstrated the vitality and flexibility of the Canadian-U.S. relationship. In this case the homeland became North America, and the threat served to bring us together as it did in World War II, as it would in later conflicts, and as it does now in formulating GEOINT to support the war on terrorism.
#soviet #dewline #defence 
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UNISYS was awarded the contract for the DEW replacement system. UNISYS was the leader in Radar systems for the military and had many technological imventions and designs. They develioed Doppler radar too. The US gvt canceled the contract due to satelites. Unisys then sold the radar systems to NOAA for early Tornado warning systems.
When they joked in 80's movies about manning a radar station in the Arctic, *this* is what they meant.
I worked the DEW Line at Barter Island Alaska and Pow 2 Aux site 1973-1975 . Employment contract was 365 days on 20 days off. My wife was the first women employed on the DEW Line in 1974, we had to live in the village of Kaktovik because the Air Force said there was no accommodations for women. Great experience.
Thank you so much for sharing John.
This is really interesting. May I ask some questions?
thank you for your service
Every station had a small telephone exchange. IIRC, you dialled 81 to get to the next station and 91 to the next main station exchange. During the Vietnam war, the phone network was connected through the rest of the US military phone systems in Asia and Europe. During boring periods, it was possible to successively dial into each station's exchange, then through Asia, Europe, Iceland, Greenland (the DYE stations), in short keep on dialling around the world to have the phone ring in the next room. I don't know about when the above person worked as a console operator, but many of them read a book, some may have even fallen asleep, because the radar consoles had a speed alarm: any target flying at more than 180 knots would trigger an alarm.
I did a paper on the DEW Line network back in college for a political science class. I’m still fascinated with it. One minor fix though.
It was actually about 650 million to build.
I believe with inflation adjusted, that would be 7 billion dollars in today’s money. To visualize where it was, it was at the latitude of Point Barrow at the top of Alaska in a semi circle through to Greenland.
71.5 degrees N.
They came in on budget and ahead of schedule. Because men were men back then and they didn’t
fu- around with national security.
What a crock of u know what? Like 5his ever happened....
@@michael-4k4000 Oh, it’s real. The problem is it was designed to work against bombers. You needed BMEWS and that doesn’t work against subs off our coast. Yeah.. you can see how much tourism the DEW line opened up. 😊
I’m fascinated by it too. It’s amazing how much we can accomplish given funding and talent. It’s like NASA in the 60’s. You’ll never see another space program.. just too damn expensive.
@michael Just because you don't think anything happened before you were born, doesn't mean it didn't happen. You can also use Google Earth to see the remnants of these stations all along the arctic circle. They are there.
I live very near one. It’s truly amazing to go out there and think of it’s history.
Wow, how is the weather changing compared to years ago?
My father was OIC (USAF) of two radar sites in Newfoundland in 1961...St. Johns and St Anthony
My dad was one of the men responsible for maintaining the power plants and electrical systems of Alaska's dew line stations in the early-to-mid 1950's. He enlisted in the Army Air Corp at age 18 and saw it transition into the Air Force shortly after. He was honorably discharged as a 1st Sargent and stayed in Alaska until his death in 2017.
I was in Alaska 65-68, and the volume of F 106s in air some days was reminiscent of the Battle of Britain. It was common to overhear pilots saying, "The artics monks ran our asses off today" to describe how their day went.
My dad had a rather unusual job at Elmendorf. He was responsible for finding new and updating IFR / VFR maps for, among other things, emergency strips (interceptors, tankers who have blown through their gas or wing icing, etc) for the entire dew line in addition to AADC.
I don't know if any viewers are still around from that period, but if you ever saw a T 33 with only a pilot and no backseater staying overnight, that was him ( and yes, 33s always had a backseater by regs but I still have the order signed by then secretary of Air Force & Johnson granting permission, so take your blood pressure meds).
Even though there was a glut of fighter pilots up there, the one group of people who he really admired and made sure everyone else did too was the guys manning those sites.
Now that's how to do a documentary.
👍🙏
We also can't forget CFS Alert (CanadianForces Station), which is a hell of a lot further north than any part of the Dew Line which was in operation at the same time and is still in operation to this day. It is in Canada on the northern tip of Elsmere Island and is also the Northern most, continuously inhabited place on earth. A tour of duty is 6 months long and will either be 6 months of 24 hours of total night or 6 months of 24 hours of total sunlight.
I did a complete survey of the DEW line while in the CAF. Busy summer....
Wow! Anything interesting you can share that adds to the story Capt. Astra?
I'm gonna go listen to some Rush
Distant Early Warning... Nice.
My favorite band... I started playing bass in 1982 because of them, and still play bass to this day. I always play over an hour's worth of Rush songs whenever I play my bass. My youtube avatar is is my version of the 2112 album art that I made as a 3D model using Blender 3D.
Sean Maloney has great articles on the DEW Line. A fascinating USA mega defence product that just happened to be partially located in Canada's tertitories. Both Cdn. ultra nationalists and people in the know who consider themselves political insiders are unhappy with Maloney's blunt and very well researched material.
Actually, the vast majority of the Dew Line were located in Canada 🇨🇦
From writing backwards with grease-pencils on plexiglass to Space-Supremacy. 🤔
Yup and if you don't aggree your crazy and mad. Horrible dinner guests.
My grandfather worked at Fox 5 at Broughton Island, North Baffin Island. I went to the site in 2011. On a clear day you can vaguely see Greenland on the horizon.
I knew one of the daughters of the man who was in charge of building the line. Even in the 1900s he was not allowed to go to any other nation except the USA . He lived in Ontario at that time
Some of the old timers recounted that, during construction, there had been a workplace accident, and the next day, Radio Moscow would send it's best wishes and speedy recovery to Mr. xx at station xx..
Do the DEW!
The work shifts are 9 weeks on and 3 weeks off. I was offered a job working at them and declined. I did travel to most of them doing communications work but the longest I stayed was a few weeks.
In 1976-77 I worked on mostly DYE2 on Greenlands ice cap. Also did some time on Dye3 and DYE 4 on Kulusuk island,
How was it?
Great documents, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Some remote radar sites (East and West ends) were located South of the Arctic Circle.
yes, places like Tin City, Sparrevon, Cape Newenham, Cape Romanzof, Cold Bay and Ft Yukon are all south of the circle. I’ve been to these and the North Slope, Alaska ones.
For the record, and my experience! Thinking you can get more done in a day than you can is a positive way to get'r did! Love you guys, and thank you for the awesome content!
🙏🙏
Love your videos! I would really like to see one on the DHC 4/5
Great content! Excellent quality editing. 👌
Thank you so much 🤗
Our father flew with Flying Tigers and was there in the 50's. Have slides from there he took while there. An amazing site there to be seen from those slides.
👍👍
My father worked tye DEW line. Ask me any u may have on this vital line,,,, my father was a General in WW2
Now all these sites only have 4-5 people at them, 2-3 techs and a couple mechanics. All the radar data goes to other places to be viewed. The big camps are mostly empty.
I was stationed at one site (Watford City, ND) when it became a JSS in 1978, and I was the ONLY military member.
Very, very few of the original Dew Line posts in Canada are active as the DEW Line was shut down in the late 1980s. The reason was the technology had changed so much that Canada and the U.S. realized they needed a new series of radar stations to replace the DEW Line, and that was the birth of the North Warning System.
New installations were built, and some of the old were joined with the new and modernized while the rest were either stripped of military tech and given to civilian groups or were either torn done or abandoned
@Dronescapes >>> 👍👍
19:34 Awesome, tight airport security procedures on your way to a top secret military project. We had nuclear weapons, but shoe bombs or box cutters weren't invented yet, thank god.
Dad was at Murphy Dome as a intercept watch officer '58 -'59.
Did he get to see the sno-freighter?
MI was told my Father. Willard Salathiel Coffey, flew the Dew Line at one time.
If it no longer works. Why did Canada and the U ited States do a ajor rehab and upgrade of this line in 1986, staring with installing Fibre Optics Cable for commu ications. Worked on this project for Canac Microtel for almost a year ? Gary in Canada
It was replaced with satellites.
@@rty1955 There are still Radar sites running in Alaska, as well as new sites for the missile intercepter system. Also still running intercepts of Russian aircraft on the regular off Alaska.
Anyone home?
I think I will apply to Western Electric for employment 🙃
My dad worked on the dew line in the early days during the Korean war...he told me he'd rather of gone to Korea...
I can see why
So did my dad, but he was in San Francisco about to board a ship to Korea when he was pulled out of line with new orders to go to Alaska. His 5 buddies continued on to Korea. 3 were killed, one severely wounded, and one came home with really bad ptsd. My dad was from Louisiana, but he loved Alaska and never left it.
You know Canada didn't pay for any part of it
The Soviets were not going to attack Canada in any case. Not before they attack the US first. So... Logical, no?
@@mapleveritas2698 👎 No
I was there in 1961 thru 1964. Kinney cove Cordova. Johnson's White Alice early warning system. The opportunity offered by risking one's life in service of one's country provided my family with the opportunity to live in 4 countries.
I misspelled Kennedy Cove, Cordova Alaska. I am honestly David L. Maidens. 38 men 1 woman 2 children, David & Valinda. Old Hooker was the name of our 180, our cabin cruiser was the Valinda D.
I honestly think if it was left to maned bombers the is no way the Soviet Union could have gotten through, USA was to well defended. USSR was wide open
They got through on a regular basis.
We know today,that the DEW line was a colossal waste of money.
Just like welfare
How about keeping fully armed nuclear B-52's airborne 24/7 for DECADES? Wow.
Well, yes and no. How much is deterrence worth?
Why not just attack from the South?😂
Haha
Modern day America could not do anything like this anymore. We lack the drive, the imagination, working that hard would be out of the question for many. We sure as hell lack the leadership. Nope. We would just try and contract the whole job to China or whoever. Print the money we do not have to pay for it. Then later close the whole thing down maybe a year or two down the road, as the politicians would want to use it to bash each other over the heads. Well, knowing politicians it would never get done. To much political hay to make out of it. We are toast.
It’s going to be ok friend ❤
@@hhyy3173 No. Its really not. Laugh at me if you will. I think I see clearly where all this is going.
Canada and the US have announced a massive update to the NORAD early warning systems in the arctic only recently
We can't even come close to copying our own state capital buildings. Would love to know who wrote HIStory..
@@dmacpher there will be a race to untap more natural resources in the arctic.