Radar's Solution

Throughout the Cold War more planes were in the air and they were going faster.  Between civilian and military aircraft, birds started to become a problem.  Between 1964-1970 six CF-104 Starfighters were lost at CFB Cold Lake and six overseas, all because of birds.  In 1966 there were 198 incidents, 1967, 254, and 1968, 197, though most were not too serious.

This needed to be solved, and radar technology became the solution in Cold Lake's Operation Birdtrack.  This was a program taken on by 448 Test Squadron which was part of the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE).  They decided they would reduce these incidents by predicting birds' patterns, like the weather.  Cold Lake was a good test spot because it had many birds flying through the area as well as aircraft.

Birds could actually be seen on radar by the 42 Radar Squadron of Air Defence Command which was also stationed at Cold Lake.  They thus provided the radar films to the project to be analyzed.  Through these films, it was discovered that the birds flew more at night and during certain times of the year.

In 1968 it was tested, predicting the birds correctly 70% of the time.  This was then put to use alongside the weather forecast.  Also in use was an up to date, hourly warning system which used M33C track radar echoes.  The CFHQ Directorate of Flight Safety donated this height radar which was first used as anti-aircraft fire control. 

This radar could follow birds up to 15 000 feet and used echoes to discover altitude.  The radar was located thirty-five miles from CFB Cold Lake at 448’s Primrose Lake Evaluation Range.  Through this, they learned that 90% of birds flew under 5,000 feet and 99% under 10,000.