![]() Map of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line The subject of the study was the vulnerability of the United States and Canada to aerial bombing attacks, and its concluding recommendation was that a distant early warning line of search radar stations be built across the Arctic region of the North American continent as rapidly as possible. The DEW Line grew out of a detailed study made by a group of the nation's foremost scientists in 1952, the Summer Study Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The construction of the DEW Line was made possible by a bilateral agreement between the Canadian and United States governments, and by collaboration between the United States Department of Defense and the Bell System of communication companies. In addition to the secondary Mid-Canada Line and the tertiary Pinetree Line, the DEW Line marked the edge of an electronic grid controlled by the new Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) computer system and was ultimately centred at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado, command hub of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A successful combination of scientific design and logistical planning of the late 1950s, the DEW Line consisted of a string of continental defence radar installations, ultimately stretching from Alaska to Greenland. The DEW Line was a significant achievement among Cold War initiatives in the Arctic. To give warning of this threat, in 1958 a more sophisticated radar system was constructed, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). The original DEW line was designed to detect bombers and was unable to detect ICBMs. The DEW Line was built during the Cold War to give early warning of a Soviet nuclear strike, to allow time for United States bombers to get off the ground and land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) to be launched, to reduce the chances that a preemptive strike could destroy United States strategic nuclear forces. The shortest ( great circle) route for a Russian air attack on North America is through the Arctic, across the area around the North Pole. The official handover from DEW to NWS took place on 15 July 1993. Beginning in 1988, most of the original DEW stations were deactivated, while a small number were upgraded with all-new equipment. In 1985, as part of the " Shamrock Summit", the United States and Canada agreed to transition DEW to the new North Warning System (NWS). ![]() The MCL was shut down in the early 1960s, and much of the Pinetree Line was given over to civilian use. The 63-base line reached operational status in 1957. Advance site preparation began in December 1954, and the construction was carried out in a massive logistical operation that took place mostly during the summer months when the sites could be reached by ships. The need was considered critical and the construction was given the highest national priorities. This would not only provide ample time for the defences to prepare, but also allow the Strategic Air Command to get its active aircraft airborne long before Soviet bombers could reach their targets. The DEW Line was proposed as a solution to both of these problems, using conventional radar systems that could both detect and characterise an attack, while being located far to the north where they would offer hours of advance warning. The MCL proved largely useless in practice, as the radar return of flocks of birds overwhelmed signals from aircraft. This provided a "trip wire" warning located roughly at the 55th parallel, giving commanders ample warning time, but little information on the targets or their exact location. The Mid-Canada Line (MCL) was proposed as an inexpensive solution using bistatic radar. The first of these was the joint Canadian-United States Pinetree Line, which ran from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island just north of the Canada–United States border, but even while it was being built there were concerns that it would not provide enough warning time to launch an effective counterattack. The DEW Line was the northernmost and most capable of three radar lines in Canada and Alaska. It was set up to detect incoming bombers of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and provide early warning of any sea-and-land invasion. The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska (see Project Stretchout and Project Bluegrass), in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. From north to south: the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, Mid-Canada Line, and Pinetree Line.
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