Was This Remote Radar The Worst Military Assignment Ever?
Some military posts are better than others
Before the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the only way to launch an effective nuclear strike during the Cold War was to use a fleet of bombers. In the event of a nuclear incident, a series of nuclear-laden bombers would be dispatched from secret airfields and from positions in the air where they were stationed around the clock. These planes would then turn and fly toward their intended targets and hope to land a killing blow before the other country could get their own planes into the air.
Bombers were slow, and advanced radar stations could give a nation an edge. The faster you could identify an incoming fleet of nuclear bombers, the faster you could get your own bombers on station and ready to drop their own terrible payloads. It was this special type of 1950s warfare that birthed one of the strangest military installations of the Cold War.
In a bid to extend their radar range, the United States built a series of platforms off the coast of New England. These platforms held massive radar arrays that extended their early warning detection by hundreds of miles. With advanced radar range, the United States could get an extra 30 minutes of warning in the event of a Soviet Bomber attack targeting…
