North America’s Arctic radar shield is due for an upgrade
Canada and the United States have not yet worked out how to modernise the missile-defence system
THE VAST spheres rest on a desolate ridge at Cape Kiglapait in Labrador, one atop a tower and two others on the ground like a toppled snowman abandoned by giants. Each is a radome enclosing radar antennae that spew invisible waves across the Labrador sea. They are the electromechanical sentries of the Arctic. Strung across the northern fringes of Canadian territory from Labrador to Yukon, then into Alaska, the Kiglapait station and its many siblings form a picket line known as the North Warning System, or NWS (see map).
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Eyes in the ice”
From the July 31st 2021 edition
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