SCHOOL THESIS

2. Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Warning
Adding to the continental defense challenge, Soviet engineers soon developed a
new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering small, newly
developed hydrogen bomb warheads. Thus, long range missile attacks now became a
critical defense problem, as NORAD’s vast line of arctic air defense radar sites could
now “not only [be] outflanked, but literally jumped over.” 7
In response to this major ICBM threat, beginning in 1959, the Ballistic Missile
Early Warning System (BMEWS) was developed (see Figure 3). Consisting of huge 165
feet high by 400 feet long radars, BMEWS became the first operational ballistic missile
detection and warning system, designed to provide 15–25 minutes critical warning of a
Soviet missile attack launched directly over the North Pole.
Figure 3. Thule BMEWS Site. 8
7 Brief History of NORAD, 6.
8 Tom Page,”BMEWS Site 1, Under Construction - 1958–1960,”Radomes, Inc., accessed 19 Feb
2014,http://radomes.org/museum/documents/BMEWSSite1ThuleGL1958-60construction.html.
8