USAF Gap Fillers - Labrador/Newfoundland

National Archives of Canada


SECRET

APPENDIX A

DRAFT PRESS RELEASE

For simultaneous release by the Minister of National Defence and the Secretary of Defence at ________________ hours on ______________:

On July 1st 1961 the Distant Early Warning system for the defence of North American against attack from the air will be improved by the activation of several radar stations in Greenland, and the closing by means of an airborne early warning barrier and radar picket vessels of the gaps in existing land based radar coverage between Greenland - Iceland - United Kingdom. The former system is called DEW East and the latter the Greenland - Iceland - United Kingdom barrier.

Simultaneous with the activation of the above facilities, three prime radars at Baffin Island, Resolution Island and Redcliff Newfoundland and six gap filler radars at the following locations on the Labrador-Newfoundland coast will be inactivated: Elliston Ridge, Fox Harbour, La Scie, Cut Throat Island, Spotted Isle, and Cape Makkovik.