Produced during the Cold War “Aerospace Communications” is a film that shows the dreaded scenario of a nuclear war unfolding between the United States and another nation capable of launching a nuclear strike. Hosted by actor James Stewart, who served in the U.S. Air Force as a bomber pilot, the film describes the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS), Mid-Canada Line, and the Pine Line as well as the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line and the nation’s new satellite-based communications system. It also details SAGE, the Semi-Automated Ground Environment, the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE). This was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. SAGE directed and controlled the NORAD response to a Soviet air attack, operating in this role from the late 1950s into the 1980s. Its enormous computers and huge displays remain a part of cold war lore, and a common prop in movies such as Dr. Strangelove and Colossus.
The film features fascinating footage of the Strategic Air Command and its infrastructure and equipment, including advanced communication and computer equipment, closed-circuit television systems, war rooms, radar systems, facsimile machines, telemetry and data links, including undersea communications and antennas. B-58 strike aircraft and B-52 bombers, as well as Atlas missiles, are also shown on patrol in the film.
The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System was a USAF “Big L” Cold War system of radar, computer, and communications systems that included the first operational ballistic missile detection radar.The network of 12 radars for detecting “a mass ballistic missile attack launched on northern approaches [for] 15 to 25 minutes warning time” also provided Project Space Track satellite data (e.g., about 1/4 of SPADATS observations).
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War, and provide early warning of any sea-and-land invasion.
The DEW Line was operational from 1957 to the late 1980s and it was the northernmost and most capable of three radar lines in Canada and Alaska; the joint Canadian-US Pinetree Line ran from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, and the Mid-Canada Line ran somewhat north of this. Between 1988 and 1993, most stations were deactivated. Those that remained were upgraded as part of the new North Warning System.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
