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Automatic Arctic Radar Will Give· V. S. Six Hours' Warliing 6/ Attd(;k 

·Intermediate Stations 

To Track E11emy Planes 

By John G. Norris. 

Staff Reporter 

ALONG THE remote northern coast of Alaska and Canada, 

near lonely Barter Island, some experiments that could 

affect your very survival were held last winter. 

Scientists and military communications 'experts braved the 

Arctic rigors to pass judgment on radically new "automatic" 

radar which can make possible an effective continental 

defense system. .. ------------

The field tests were success- more on interlinking radar de· 

ful, says the Air Force, and fences, built in depth over the 

Defense Secretary Charles E. entire continent, plus thou· 

Wilson has ordered a go-ahead sands of supersonic, all-weath· on plans to build a chain of er interceptol" planes and guid· such early warning stations ed missiles. across the Arctic. Military men generally have 

How crucial were the trials opposed such programs as has been noted guardedly by "aerial Maginot lines" which 

Government officials. At stake would ultimctely lead the was- a decision on whether to United States into a "fatal de· 

build such a "distant early fensive-mindedness." They con· warning" radar screen to give tend that the best defense is a advance notice .of enemy good offense, and that we planes coming over the North should put most of our money 

Pole-the shortest route from in retaliatory bombers and 

Russia-or whether to push other mobile forces. our existing radar net in the But the more thoughtful United States and southern military men have realized 

Canada as far north as econom· that much greater emphasis on ically practicable. air defense was necessary if . only to assure that our Stra- . IN '.fHE FIRST ca~e, m!l~or tegic Air Command could do Amer1~a!1 and Canadian cities its job. For if Russia believed 

and mihtal.'y bases would get that a mass sneak raid could some six hours' warning; the smash our SAC bases before 

latter system would give them our bombers could get into the 

perhaps two hours. Today, we air on their retaliatory mission, 

cannot count on more than she might be encouraged to 

a half hour's notice. use the long-range A-bombers 

That is barely enough time she has been building of late. 

THUS THE question of 

building up our radar net has 

been a vital issue ever since 

Russia exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949. Until then, 

the United States had done 

little toward building a con· tinental defense system. We 

authorized construction of a 

'iHTIRIOR. 

tlADAR. 

ST"TIONS 

to get interceptor planes into 

the air and antiaircraft guns 

and missiles readied for a last· 

ditch fight. Four out of five of 

the bombers might get'through 

to drop atomic or hydrogen 

bombs on American cities. 

That could mean death to 10 

million of us, plus crushing 

blows at our ability to carry on a war. American l!efense chiefs ad· 

mit we are vulnerable today to 

Russian air attack. Secretary 

Wilson conceded this recently (though he rejected a suggestion we are "highly vulner· 

able"). But he stressed that 

enemy ability to penetrate our air defenses does not mean that we are going to be attacked. 

ch a in of warning stations · This is an artist's conception of the continental defense system now planned. It in· 

~~ fffe i:J:ti~~r~e;J :r~~n~o~~; eludes an automatic radar chain across the Arctic; intermediate lines across Canada_; 

installations like Oak Ridge. 

existing systems in Alaska, the United States and Greenland, and picket ships a.nil planea 

patrolling the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans. 

We are "relatively secure" 

now, he insisted, because of our strategic bombing com· mand. Russia, he said, is "more 

afraid of us than we are of 

them, and has been stressing a defensive buildup rather 

than offensive bombing opera· tions aimed at the United 

States. 

Now nearly complete, • they r a d a r reception and radio pr o o f against the magnetic feints and then slip A-bombers tion is protection of the Fleet, The aim is a defense that hav~ essentially the same type communication to rear areas. storms which knock out con· through by dQg-leg flights. and the Navy is asking funds would knock off perhaps nine 

of radar that saved England Identification of targets al· vent i on a 1 electronic equip- · The answer is to install such to rebuild Liberty ships for out of lO Invading bombers. 

in the Battle of Britain. ways is a problem, particular· ment in the Arctic during sub- intermediate · warning lines. use as regular picket stations. The 50 percent destruction 

Like the "secret weapon" of ly over a country like the stantial portions of the year." Already in operation is the It also is buying a number of 

1940, these stations send out • United States where some 25,· These existing experimental American-manned "Pinetree Lockheed Super. Constella· hoped for from present plans pulses of e le c t r i c energy 000 planes are in the air daily. stations, says the Pentagon, Chain" running across the up- tions with electronics gear to would leave many cities and 

which bounce back at the will be extended into a con- permost part of inhabited search for invaders. millions of people vulnerable 

speed of light when they hit . THE COST ,~f man~~ng a tinuous chain from the preg- Canada. to B-bombs, these scientists an airplane or other mass. tight radar ne~ m depth over ent Alaskan net to the one Plans now call for building ABOUT 10 PERCENT of de· wam. Such "echoes" indicate the an area the size of the North around Thule, Greenland. the "McGill Fence." Designed fense spending next year- 'fhe military men answer direction distance and alti· American continent would be Such a Distant Early Warn- by McGill University scien. some $3,700,000,000---will go that many of the missiles and 

tude of 'the target by light a major item .. Some 300 to 400 ing Line - "DEW Line" - tists, magazine articles say it for strictly continental de- other components of an air· ~'pips" on the radarscope. men are required to watch the would give a minimum of six will cross Canada about the fense measures. That includes tight defense system will not 

scopes around the clock and hours' warning to Air Defense fifty.fourth parallel. That not only radar, but research be ready until about 1960. 

WEAKNESSES o f r a d a r provide cooks, guards and ad- command Headquarters in would give about two hours' for and construction of inter· And meanwhile, major powers have been and continue to be ministrative personnel. Colorado of the approach of warning to the United States. ceptor planes and antiaircraft a!e working on the interconthese: But in the Barter Island enemy bombers. Wilson's statement of two guided missiles like the Nike. tinental ballistic guided mis- The range of any one sta- system, when a radar "sights" t th Thi"s 1

·s far short of the ....__ _.· _ t. · 1 · d t l" f ·ght 1 t · 11 o G b · · h weeks ago said tha e con- u.,.. ion 1s im1te o me o s1 ; a p ane i rmgs a be at a NE BI o Jection, OW" f 1 1 .

11 fense plan a d v 0 c at e d by ·t t " " 1 er d" t t tr I · t Th h b th t h l' tinental de ense p an a so w1 1 canno see p anes ov 1s an , con o pom . e ever, as een a sue a 1ae, . th American scientists. They not the horizon. warning is transmitted within unless backed up by interme- provide protection across e h th 

Enemy aircraft can sneak in seconds of the time the enemy diate chains across Canada, northeastern and northwest- only would strengt en e preat low altitude and escape de· aircraft come within range, ac· would lend itself to harassing ern approaches to North sent jerry-built air de(ense · tection among hills and other cording to a news release from tactics by an enemy. The DEW America. Navy picket ships system within the United I 

ground obJ"ects Western Electr·c k f Li"ne could only warn that and patrol planes· will do th.at States, but would greatly step · / · 1 • ma er 0 up nreparations for an inter· The enemy can use elec· the system. planes had crossed over. A job. · .., 

sile. Radar promises to be no 

defense against a weap~n that 

goes up into the ionosphere 

and comes down on the target 

from overhead. 

This would give defenders 

only about nine seconds' warn· ing. The only defense that seems possible is the threat 

of retaliation from our own missile launchers, constantly manned by crews which would· 

just have time to press their own buttons before being blown to atoms. That, or some peaceful settlement of world 

differences. 

FOR THIS reason-and a conviction that preservation of the American economy is 

equally vital to victory in the 

Cold War-Wilson has op- posed the vast expenditures some have urged to build an airtight defense against possible H-bomb attack. 

Some such proposals call for enonninP' mo hillion nnllllr!; nr 

tronic e o u n t er measurrs to "Moreover," it says, "both series of interlocking line~ Already in the Fleet are a locking continental system in: 

throw on: watching rada.rmen. the radar and the radio trans· would be needed to track few· d e st r o y e r s and sub- depth ·running from Hawaii: 

aurora In the borealis northern dOP.!; areas, tricks the to mission the command which U .. e 

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