As the Cold War heated up in the 1950s, the Arctic became increasingly militarized. The shortest distance for bombers and missiles between the heartlands of the United States and the Soviet Union was over the Pole. By 1957 the U.S. and Canada had strung an elaborate, interlocking series of radar stations dubbed the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line across the top of the continent, while bomber and fighter bases were built from Greenland to Alaska.
The interest in the Arctic by the U.S. Navy's Silent Service went beyond mere curiosity. As missile technology advanced in the 1950s, submarines were increasingly seen as mobile, stealthy launch platforms that could hide under the pack ice, then slip into open water, fire their missiles, and be gone again before being detected. Navy planners saw the Arctic Ocean as both a hiding place for their own missile submarines and a hunting ground to seek out and destroy enemy missile submarines.
Captions: (Top) DEW Line stations scanned the skies over the Arctic for incoming missiles and bombers. The stations are now largely abandoned and pose a significant environmental clean-up problem for Arctic communities. NWT Archives/N-1979-051:1968)
(Bottom) Sea-launched ballistic missiles were, and still are, considered the most difficult to counter because of the mobility and stealthiness of the submarines that carried them. U.S. Navy photo.
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