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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1843.PDF
966 FLIGHT, 30 December 1955 BUILDING A RADAR CHAIN Canadian Defence Minister Describes the Construction of the Mid-Canada Line ADESCRIPTION of one of North America's early warningradar systems, considerably more informative than anywe have yet seen, was given recently in an Ottawa address by the Hon. Ralph Campney, Canadian Minister of NationalDefence. He was telling an audience from the Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps Association the story of the construction of theMid-Canada Line. Mr. Campney began by outlining the four main elements ofdie integrated system. These were: First, the Pinetree System, which tied in to the Canadian andUnited States air defence commands a basic radar warning and control system and, through extensive communication networks,linked up the Canadian and United States air intercepter forces. Second, the Mid-Canada. Line, an early warning line supple-menting the Pinetree Chain. Third, the Distant Early Warning or DEWline, across the mostnortherly practicable part of North America. Fourth, extensions down both flanks of the continent to preventout-flanking of the transcontinental network by hostile aircraft. Planning of the system [continued Mr. Campney] started someyears ago, as soon as the thermo-nuclear threat began to take shape. It was realized at once that effective defensive steps to meet thisthreat would require the combined effort of both countries, that it would be costly at.d that its construction would be difficult. Construction of the Pinetree radar system was tackled first.Part of it was constructed by Canada and part by the United States. In October 1953, when the Pinetree system was becom-ing operational, a group of Canada-United States scientists and military advisers recommended that additional early-warningcapacity should be provided. After further consideration by the Chiefs of Staff of both countries, recommendations were madewhich led to the acceptance by Canada of the responsibility for financing, constructing and operating the Mid-Canada Line, whilethe United States undertook to construct the DEWline, with Canada contributing such resources and assistance as could bemade available. The United States also became responsible for the seaward extension down each flank of the continent. As the work on the DEWline goes ahead [continued Mr.Campney] Canada has been able to help in many practical ways. Valuable assistance has been given to United States authoritie.sby aircraft and ships of the R.C.A.F. and R.C.N. respectively and the Canadian Army, too, has helped out, especially through itsbase at Churchill, Manitoba. The Departments of Northern Affairs and National Resources and Transport have also assistedand Canadian civilian air operators, contractors and industry generally have undertaken a good deal of the work in connectionwith specific DEWline sites. Coming now to the Mid-Canada Line itself, this line is beingconstructed roughly along the 55th parallel and is a job fraught with great difficulties and new problems and accompanied by agood deal of hardship and discomfort. For reasons of national and NATO security it will still be agood while before the full construction stories of the DEWline and Mid-Canada Line can be unfolded in all their gripping, challeng-ing detail of risk, improvization and achievement. It is, however, already clear that these two achievements—as construction featsalone—will have an impact on the development of the Canadian North commensurate with that which the building of the trans-continental railway lines at the turn of the century had on the opening up of the West. An approximate idea of the scope of the job may be formedfrom the fact that early this year it was estimated that about 170 million dollars would be required to provide the basic elementsfor getting the line into operation. That is enough money to build brand new modern housing along one side of a street well over100 miles long. Over 1,200 men were at work on the line soon after it started and, as the project goes forward thousands of othersare being employed across the country in workshops and in in- dustrial and electronic plants.Technically, the Mid-Canada Line consists of a series of unit detection and warning stations with main stations at appropriateintervals extending from the Labrador coast westward. The unit detection stations will use equipment originally devised by aresearch team sponsored jointly by the Defence Research Board and McGill University—hence the term sometimes used to des-cribe it—"McGill fence." This equipment is of an advanced type and, in addition to its demonstrated performance, it requires aminimum of attention and is much less expensive than previously known types. A typical main station will consist of an administrative andoperation building, personnel accommodation buildings, supply buildings, boiler and powerplants, provision for inflammablestores, a garage and a hangar. All stations will have landing facilities for helicopters. Main stations will have special functionsin relation to adjacent sections of the line, both as regards per- sonnel and maintenance. Throughout the full extent of the linea multi-channel communications network is being built and appropriate air-ground-air communication facilities are beingprovided. The initial responsibility for planning and for developing theoverall requirements to bring the line to an operational state was given to the Royal Canadian Air Force. To take over the planningfrom the stage where the Canada/United States team left off, a special section was set up in the R.C.A.F. known as the SystemsEngineering Group. This section assumed the responsibility for supervising the surveys and siting and for drawing up specifica-tions in collaboration with the Defence Research Board, to enable work to be started. Aircraft of the R.C.A.F.'s No. 408 Photographic Squadron, withsome assistance from civilian operators, carried out nearly 8,000 miles of aerial photography and the photographing and mappingfacilities of the R.C.A.F. and the Canadian Army Survey Branch were extensively used in planning the basic route of the line. While all this was going on, the Department of Defence Pro-duction was studying the best means of constructing the line speedily and efficiently. In view of the nature of the project it wasdecided to utilize the resources of the Trans-Canada Telephone System to manage all phases of the construction operation. Trans-Canada designated the Bell Telephone Company of Canada to act as management contractor for them and a "special project divi-sion" of Bell was formed to carry out the task. On the construction side, Defence Construction, Ltd., is res-ponsible, working in conjunction with the management con-
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