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North Warning System
Active	1988–present
Country	Canada & United States
Branch	Royal Canadian Air Force United States Air Force
Type	Early-warning radar
Role	Continental Air Defense
Part of	North American Aerospace Defense Command
Garrison/HQ	CFB North Bay Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

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• GPX (primary coordinates)
• GPX (secondary coordinates)

The North Warning System (NWS, French: Système d'alerte du nord) is a joint United States and Canadian early-warning radar system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It provides surveillance of airspace from potential incursions or attacks from across North America's polar region. It replaced the Distant Early Warning Line system in the late 1980s.

Overview

The NWS consists of both long range AN/FPS-117 and short range AN/FPS-124 surveillance radars, operated and maintained by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). There are 13 long range sites and 36 short range sites.

In Canada, the station sites are owned or leased by the Government of Canada, which also owns most of the infrastructure. The radars and tactical radios are owned by the United States Air Force. The Alaska Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska controls the stations in Alaska; the Canada East and Canada West Regional Operations Control Centres (ROCCs) at CFB North Bay, Ontario control the stations in Canada. ROCC information is then passed to the NORAD Combat Operations Centre (COC) at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Each Long Range site consists of accommodation buildings, radar towers and radomes, generator and fuel systems, satellite terminals, automated weather station, and UHF and VHF ground-air-ground radio. Short Range sites consist of a single AN/FPS-124 radar, satellite terminals, power generation and fuel systems, and a small emergency shelter that can accommodate six people. Some short range stations lack weather stations and UHF Tactical Radios.

History

The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, constructed in the late 1950s, was reaching obsolescence in the 1980s. With the signing of North American Air Defence Modernization agreement at the "Shamrock Summit" between Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan in Quebec City on 18 March 1985, the DEW Line began its eventual upgrading and transition becoming the North Warning System (NWS) of today.

The NWS began limited operation in 1988 with the commissioning and acceptance of the three newly constructed east coast sites BAF-3 Brevoort Island, Nunavut, LAB-2 Saglek and LAB-6 Cartwright, both in Labrador. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, new NWS LRR radars replaced former DEW Line sites. DEW sites that were not transitioned to North Warning operation were eventually closed down. The official activation of the NWS and inactivation of the DEW Line took place on 15 July 1993.

The bi-national North Warning System Office (NWSO) is located in Ottawa, Ontario and staffed with both Canadian and American military and civilian personnel. Staffed sites are operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, but physically staffed by civilian contractors. Logistical and maintenance support for the NWS is supplied by the Air Force Materiel Command of the United States Air Force, located at Ogden Air Logistics Center (OO-ALC), Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Site remediation

The former DEW Line sites were operated using practices and materials accepted by the environmental standards of the time. With their closure and many of them rebuilt as NWS sites, a clean-up project was undertaken to remove surplus infrastructure, treat chemically contaminated soils, and stabilize landfill sites. The clean-up was designed to keep chemical contamination from the DEW Line sites out of the Arctic food chain, and ensure that the sites are restored to an environmentally safe condition. In 1989, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) started investigating the environmental conditions of the DEW Line sites and commenced clean-up work at two sites in 1996. The clean-up of 21 sites was scheduled to be completed in 2013. In March 2014 DND announced the remediation project was complete.

Stations

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The NWS consists of 15 long-range radars (11 in Canada, of which eight were DEW Line sites) and 39 short-range radars (36 in Canada). The system forms a 4,800 km (2,983 mi) long and 320 km (199 mi) wide "tripwire" stretching from Alaska to southern Labrador. Minimally-attended NWS Long Range Radar AN/FPS-117 radar sites shaded in blue.

Distant Early Warning Line sites not included

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The following table lists the DEW Line sites not included in the NWS. Most of these sites not included were Intermediate sites closed in 1963 when they were declared obsolete. The stations consisted of a module train, a warehouse, a vehicle garage, an Inuit house, POL (Petroleum, Oil, Lubricant) tanks and a continuous wave radar tower. Others were some Auxiliary sites that were replaced with new NWS stations. DEW Line stations in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska were inactivated due to budget reductions in 1969. The DYE Stations in Greenland and Iceland were transferred to the USAF Air Forces Iceland in 1980.

The primary DEW line radars were the Raytheon AN/FPS-19 long range L-Band search radar in Canada and Alaska at main and auxiliary sites; Bendix AN/FPS-30 at the four Greenland DYE radar stations. Motorola AN/FPS-23 short range search radar was installed at the Intermediate sites, used as fillers to cover any Long Range Radar surveillance gaps.

• ^a Location approximate due to low-resolution aerial imagery of area.
• ^b Site location obliterated by snow cover.

See also

• Canadian Forces base
• Joint Surveillance System
• NORAD Tracks Santa Program
• Operation Hurricane (Canada)

References

1. ^ "North Warning System (NWS) Office Statement of Work" (Compressed PDF file). Buyandsell.gc.ca (in English and French). Public Services and Procurement Canada. November 2020. Archived from the original on 6 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
2. Environmental Assessment for North Warning System (Alaska)
3. ^ Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 16 July 2020 to 0901Z 10 September 2020.
4. Fire destroys North Warning System radar station

Further reading

• Lackenbauer, Farish, Arthur-Lackenbauer (2005). The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line: A Bibliography and Documentary Resource List. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2024. The Arctic Institute of North America. ISBN 1-894788-01-X .
• Contaminated Sites in Nunavut Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 18 June 2024

External links

• About NORAD Public information.
• PAIL Corp. Public information from PAIL Corp.
• Technical Radar Information NWS Radar information from FAS.

v t e Aerospace Defense Command (ADC)
Bases	CONUS Amarillo Beale Charleston Davis-Monthan Dobbins Dover Dow Duluth Eglin Edwards Ellington Ellsworth England Ent Ethan Allen Fairfax Fallon Fort Gregg-Adams Fort Heath Geiger George Glasgow Grand Forks Grenier Griffiss Gunter Hamilton Hancock Homestead Hurlburt Hunter Imeson Key West Kincheloe Kingsley Kirtland Lackland Laredo Larson Luke MacDill March Malmstrom McCoy McChord McClellan McGhee Tyson McGuire Minneapolis-St. Paul Minot Mitchel New Castle Niagara Falls Norton O'Hare Otis Oxnard Paine Perrin Peterson Pittsburgh Portland Presque Isle R.I. Bong Richards-Gebaur Robins K.I. Sawyer Selfridge Seymour Johnson Sioux City Stead Stewart Suffolk County Tinker Travis Truax Tyndall Vandenberg Vincent Walker Webb Westover Wright-Patterson Wurtsmith Youngstown Overseas Ernest Harmon Frobisher Bay Goose Keflavik McAndrew Pepperrell Thule
Stations	CONUS Adair Aiken Almaden Alpena Antigo Arlington Heights Baker Bedford Bellefontaine Belleville Benton Blaine Brookfield Brunswick Bucks Harbor Burns Calumet Cambria Cape Charles Cape Cod Carmi Caswell Chandler Charleston Cheyenne Mountain Claysburg Clear Colville Condon Continental Divide Cottonwood Cross City Crystal Springs Curlew Custer Cut Bank Dallas Center Dauphin Island Dickinson Duncanville Eldorado Empire Finland Finley Flintstone Fordland Fort Fisher Fort Lee Fortuna Gettysburg Grand Marais Grand Rapids Guthrie Hanna City Havre Highlands Houma Hutchinson Joelton Keno Killeen Kingman Kirksville Klamath Lake Charles Lake City Las Cruces Las Vegas Lewistown Lockport Lufkin Lyndonville Madera Makah Mica Peak Miles City Mill Valley Minot Montauk Moriarty Mount Hebo Mount Laguna Mount Lemmon Naselle North Bend North Charleston North Truro Oklahoma City Olathe Omaha Opheim Osceola Othello Owingsville Ozona Palermo Point Arena Port Austin Port Isabel Pyote Red Bluff Rochester Rockport Rockville (Indiana) Roslyn Rye Saint Albans San Clemente Island Santa Rosa Island Saratoga Springs Sault Ste Marie Shemya Snelling Snow Mountain Sweetwater Texarkana Tierra Amarilla Thomasville Tonopah Topsham Two Creeks Wadena Walnut Ridge Watertown Waverly West Mesa Willow Run Winnemucca Winslow Winston-Salem Woomera Yaak Zapata Overseas Armstrong Baldy Hughes Beausejour Cape Makkovik Cartwright Cut Throat Island Elliston Ridge Fox Harbour Hofn Hopedale Kamloops La Scie Langanes Latrar Melville Puntzi Mountain Ramore Red Cliff Rockville Saglek St. Anthony Saskatoon Mountain Sioux Lookout Spotted Island Stephenville
Air Defense units	Forces Central Air Defense Eastern Air Defense Iceland Western Air Defense First Fourth Tenth Fourteenth Air Divisions 8th 9th 20th 21st 23d 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32d 33d 34th 35th 36th 37th 58th 64th 73d 85th Sectors Albuquerque Bangor Boston Chicago Detroit Duluth Goose Grand Forks Great Falls Kansas City Los Angeles Minot Montgomery New York Oklahoma City Phoenix Portland Reno Sault Sainte Marie San Francisco Seattle Sioux City Spokane Stewart Syracuse Washington Wings Fighter 1st 4th 23d 32d 33d 50th 52d 56th 78th 81st 325th 328th 507th Detection and Control 71st 73d 551st 552d Air Defense 46th 4620th 4621st 4622d 4624th 4625th 4627th 4628th 4683d 4700th 4702d 4703d 4704th 4705th 4706th 4707th 4708th 4709th 4710th 4711th 4750th 4751st 4752d 4756th 4780th Groups Fighter 1st 4th 14th 15th 23d 32d 33d 50th 52d 53d 54th 56th 57th 78th 79th 81st 82d 84th 325th 326th 327th 328th 329th 337th 343d 355th 408th 412th 414th 473d 475th 476th 478th 507th Air Defense 10th 500th 501st 502d 503d 514th 515th 516th 517th 518th 519th 520th 521st 525th 527th 528th 529th 530th 533d 534th 564th 566th 567th 568th 575th 637th 665th 678th 692d 701st 751st 762d 765th 778th 780th 827th 858th 4606th 4620th 4676th 4700th 4721st 4722d 4727th 4728th 4729th 4730th 4731st 4732d 4733d 4734th 4735th 4750th 4756th Aircraft Control & Warning 503d 505th 540th 541st 542d 543d 544th 545th 546th 563d 564th 565th 566th Squadrons Aerospace Defense Command Fighter Squadrons Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons
Major weapon systems	Electronic TB-29 EB-57 EC-121 Fighters Propeller: F-47 F-51 P-61 F-82 Subsonic Jet: P-80 F-84 F-86 F-89 F-94 Supersonic Jet: F-101 F-102 F-104 F-106 Missiles AIM-4 AIM-26 AIR-2 CIM-10 Ships Guardian Interceptor Interdictor Interpreter Investigator Locator Lookout Outpost Pickett Protector Scanner Searcher Skywatcher Tracer Watchman Vigil Texas Towers Texas Tower 2 Texas Tower 3 Texas Tower 4
Miscellaneous	Air Defense Command Emblem Gallery (on Wikimedia Commons) General Surveillance Radar Stations

v t e Abandoned sites in Greenland
Greenlandic Inuit Danish	Avannaata Annoatok Appaalissiorfik Appat (Ritenbenck) Ataa Comer's Midden Etah Ikermiut Illorsuit Illulik Itissaalik Kuuk Moriusaq Narsaarsuk Nuugaatsiaq Qaqortuatsiaq Qernertuarssuit Qilakitsoq Saattoq Sarfaq Sermermiut Qeqertalik Qullissat Qeqqata Nipisat Island Sermersooq Ikkatteq Itterajivit (Kap Hope) Ivittuut Kangeq (Håbets Ø) Kangerluarsoruseq (Færingehavn) Nualik Qoornoq Umanak Umivik Uunarteq (Kap Tobin) Kujalleq Akunnat (Lichtenfels) Alluitsoq (Lichtenau) Idlorpait Ikigait Østprøven outside municipalities Clavering Island Pituffik Sabine Island
Greenlandic Norse Norsemen/Vikings	Western (Vestribyggð) Sandnæs (Kilaarsarfik) Eastern (Eystribyggð) Brattahlíð Dyrnæs Garðar Hvalsey Herjolfsnes Middle Settlement Farm ruins discovered
Faroese	Føroyingahavnin (Kangerluarsoruseq)
American	Bluie East Bluie East One Bluie East Two Bluie East Three Bluie East Four Bluie East Five Bluie West Bluie West One Bluie West Two Bluie West Three Bluie West Four Bluie West Five Bluie West Six Bluie West Seven Bluie West Eight Bluie West Nine DEW line DYE-1 DYE-2 DYE-3 DYE-4 Project Iceworm Camp Century Camp Fistclench
Dutch	Ritenbench (Appat) Rodebaai
German	Moravian Neu-Herrnhut Lichtenfels (Akunnat) Lichtenau (Alluitsoq) Friedrichsthal (Narsarmijit) Umanak Idlorpait Wehrmacht Holzauge (Hansa Bay, Sabine Island) Edelweiss (Dove Bay) Edelweiss II (Lille Koldewey)
Polar exploration	Brønlundhus Eismitte North Ice
Paleo-Eskimo	Deltaterrasserne

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