[Young Werther]

WRONG!! I spent a year, Mar 69 - Mar 70 inspecting the DEW Line. It was a contractor operated series of radar sights which looked northward for the Soviet Bomber threat which would come over the Arctic. The radars could track jet aircraft and little else.

After my DEW Line experience I was stationed at Minot AFB and flew several Snow Time missions where SAC would "exit" US territory and return to "attack" the US and exerecise our Air Defense Command assets. NORAD would cheat but could not stop us!! During one such mission we flew 18 hours and "attacked" Point Barrow Alaska, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, (BMEWS) radar at Clear AFS Alaska, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Seattle and flew a low level bombing run in Montana before returning home to Minot AFB in North Dakota. In all instances we reached the bomb release line without being interdicted.

Today the DEW is long gone. The BMEWS is probably still operational but satellite systems are more accurate. Sure had some good fishing tales come out of that DEW Line tour!!!

[Monty22]

Dang, I thought it was a Over The Horizon ICBM system. Bombers, I'll remember that.

[radarhistorian]

You say the DEW Line is no more? Not true. It still exists, but has been modernized and changed to the "North Warning System" (NWS). Also, BMEWS still exists; all three sites now operate solid-state phased-array radars. For more information, see http://www.radomes.org/museum/.