Editing Distant Early Warning Line (section)

==Introduction==
The shortest, or [[great circle]], route for a Soviet air attack on North America was through the Arctic, across the area around the [[North Pole]]. The DEW Line was built during the [[Cold War]] to give early warning of a Soviet [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear strike]], to allow time for United States bombers to get off the ground and land-based [[intercontinental ballistic missile]] (ICBMs) to be launched, to reduce the chances that a [[preemptive war|preemptive strike]] could destroy the United States' strategic nuclear forces. The original DEW line was designed to detect bombers and was unable to detect ICBMs. To give warning of this threat, in 1958 a more sophisticated radar system was constructed, the [[Ballistic Missile Early Warning System]] (BMEWS).

The DEW Line was a significant achievement among Cold War initiatives in the Arctic. A successful combination of scientific design and logistical planning of the late 1950s, the DEW Line consisted of a string of continental defence radar installations, ultimately stretching from Alaska to Greenland. In addition to the secondary [[Mid-Canada Line]] and the tertiary [[Pinetree Line]], the DEW Line marked the edge of an electronic grid controlled by the new [[Semi-Automatic Ground Environment]] (SAGE) computer system and was ultimately centred at the [[Cheyenne Mountain Complex]], [[Colorado]], command hub of the [[North American Aerospace Defense Command]] (NORAD).<ref name="dew1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm |title=The DEW LINE Sites in Canada, Alaska & Greenland |access-date=19 May 2004 |archive-date=6 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706184439/http://www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The construction of the DEW Line was made possible by a bilateral agreement between the Canadian and United States governments, and by collaboration between the [[United States Department of Defense]] and the [[Bell System]] of communication companies. The DEW Line grew out of a detailed study made by a group of the nation's foremost scientists in 1952, the Summer Study Group at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. The subject of the study was the vulnerability of the United States and Canada to aerial bombing attacks, and its concluding recommendation was that a ''distant early warning line'' of search radar stations be built across the Arctic region of the North American continent as rapidly as possible.<ref name="dew2">{{Cite web |url=http://www.porticus.org/bell/dewline.html |title=The DEW Line and Other Military Projects |access-date=8 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105131814/http://www.porticus.org/bell/dewline.html |archive-date=5 January 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>