Ground Stations, Planes, and Ships

Ground Stations:

Ground stations were vital to the air defence system.  They were important in finding and identifying missiles, aircraft, and ships.  The main stations were supplemented with mobile radars and gap-fillers to fill in holes in the line. 

There were many types of radar used in different ways in the period.  There were fence-like systems as shown through the radar chains and small dishes.  There were also large radars which were long-range and could reach a distance of 440-510 kilometres (though there were issues that often limited this distance).

Planes:

Planes were involved with radar in a few ways during the Cold War.  They often targeted enemy radar, either as a means of surveillance or by destroying it. 

Radar also played an important role for planes themselves.  The interceptors which were considered valuable to air defence relied on radar to help them fly in poor conditions and at night.

Radar also allowed planes to see below themselves to missiles and other aircraft flying there.  The Hornet and Sparrow, for example, used this type of radar to create a map of the ground below them and then bomb more efficiently.

Ships:

Radar also played a role on ships.  The radar room was often on a secluded part of the ship, through a maze of obstacles.  This is where the operator worked.

On a ship, a radar operator used the radar and recorded the data into the computer which did the rest.  Therefore it did not have rooms decidated to plotting like early Cold War radar stations.  The computers rather worked in micro-seconds and made the operation semi-automatic.

In the 1970s, ships received the Litton system, a computer system that brought together more information and data and put it into a more presentable format.  The data came from various sources including sonar, gyro compass, and radar systems.  The project was Canadian for the most part, created by Litton’s Toronto (Rexdale) plant and Ottawa, drawing on the navy and air force as well.