Radar in NATO
NORAD’s ground environment brought together ground radars, picket vessels and coastal radars, and airborne warning. It involved both finding aircraft and controlling others. The ground and air radars involved stretched from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico. This ground environment was separated into two zones:
Warning zone: including the stations that looked for enemy aircraft and then gave warning. The three radar chains: Pinetree Line, Mid-Canada Line, and the DEW Line were in this zone. The radars of NORAD in the warning zone overlapped so that all Areas of Radar Coverage (ARC) were included and supported. If something happened that one area could not continue, the ARC could be taken over by another.
The types of information gained from this zone and the radar included within it were location of the aircraft and details such as speed, height, number, and friendly or not. The radar scope was so important in this endeavor as it displayed all of this information.
There were two types of warning that were undertaken:
Strategic warning: that an aircraft or missile had the plan to come, but was not over North America, usually discovered by intelligence.
Early warning: that the aircraft or missile was indeed coming towards North America.
Combat zone: mostly in the United States and the southern parts of Canada where active air defence would take place. This area thus needed a lot of communication networks and control stations.