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The Cold War Project That Sent Thousands of People Deep Into the Arctic
The Remote and Frigid Tale of The Distant Early Warning System
In the early parts of the Cold War, the United States was worried about Russian bombers. The paradigm at the time was for one country to strike the other first in order to knock them out before they could get their own bombers airborne. This philosophy drove the United States into some interesting positions including having nuclear armed bombers remain in the air 24/7 365.
In order to detect foreign bombers, the United States and Canada had built two lines of radar installations throughout Canada. However, as technology continued to improve the existing installations were quickly becoming obsolete. A new line of radars would have to be built.
The United States was afraid that Russian bombers would fly over the North Pole and enter Canadian airspace from odd angles. The distance between the northernmost Russian air bases and the central United States is not as far as people think it is. The new radar line would have to be built deep in the Arctic in order to provide the earliest warning possible in order to allow for the United States to scramble its own jets and bombers.
