NORAD and the Soviet Nuclear Threat: Canada’s Secret Electronic Air War

1954–1988

Prologue

Canada was not at peace for long in the years following the Second World War, as it became involved, once again, in an overseas war. This time it was as a member of the United Nations in the Korean conflict. On the home front it also maintained a quiet but continuous alert to protect Canadian sovereignty; of particular importance were the Cold War and the growing threat of Soviet bombers armed with nuclear weapons. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), in partnership with American forces under the auspices of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) agreement, conducted secret exercises designed to test their ability to detect and intercept Soviet bombers. What follows is the account of all the Canadian men and women in their various military capacities who took part in these exercises in the 1970s to protect us as we slept. The book will describe the part played by all the different occupations in the defence of North America. The relationship between these professions during these exercises will be examined to explain why NORAD was such a formidable force.

Canada emerged triumphant from the Second World War and realised the need to maintain its territorial sovereignty. This was not an easy task given the physical size of the country. In the aftermath of the Second World War, political and military alliances were an important part of international relations. Canada had long-standing ties with Britain and formed new alliances as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and a signatory of the 1958 NORAD agreement, with its neighbour, the United States of America (USA). The NORAD agreement was designed to protect North America from air attack by constructing an extensive radar defence network in conjunction with fighter interceptor squadrons from both countries. The CAF provided three squadrons of fighter interceptors to NORAD in 1973, the time of our narrative, to protect Canadian airspace. Technological developments in aircraft performance meant that long-range Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) bombers, initially developed during the 1950s and capable of carrying nuclear bombs and cruise missiles, could easily reach North America. As a result, Canadians were under the threat of possible annihilation as they went about their daily lives.

The CAF maintained dedicated crews and aircraft ‘on alert’ for twenty-four hours every day of the year. ‘On alert’ meant that crews and armed aircraft held in readiness would be airborne within five minutes of a command from the NORAD system to intercept possible intruders. In the 1970s CAF Squadrons were held on alert at Comox, British Columbia, Bagotville, Quebec, Val d’Or, Quebec and Chatham, New Brunswick, to cover the possible flight approaches to Canada.

NORAD developed an extensive training system designed to maintain the proficiency of the agreement between Canada and the USA. Failure was not an option. These missions often disrupted daily family lives, as the most suitable time for these exercises was in the early hours of the morning, to avoid interfering with civilian air traffic. ‘I knew that my husband, a member of a fighter interceptor crew, was involved in the defence of Canada but he spoke mostly of the Voodoo aircraft, his love of flying and not of the details of the actual job. I never enquired further as I knew there were many things that he could not tell me – better not to ask!’ related Pamela Bland, a supportive wife.

CAF CF-18 and a Russian Bear bomber, 5 September 2007. (Courtesy of Canada’s Air Force)

These 1970s exercises have become only personal memories now. Recent events, however, indicate that the vigilance of our twenty-first-century interceptor crews is as vital as ever. Once again Russia is flexing its military muscle. For example, the Russian Victory Day parade held on the 9 May 2008, to commemorate the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany, was particularly remarkable because Red Square in Moscow, for the first time in seventeen years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, felt the tread of thousands of troops, the rumble of massive tanks and the roar overhead of jet fighters and bombers. Mark Colvin, presenter for the Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s current affairs programme PM, attended the parade and remarked, ‘There are heavy echoes of the Cold War in Moscow’s Red Square today.’ History will be the judge of whether David H. Wilkins, ambassador of the United States to Canada, is correct in his letter published on 12 May 2008 in The National Post. He stated, on the fiftieth anniversary of NORAD, that ‘their valiant [US and Canadian] heroes of the Second World War … determined to keep the homeland secure … would become the most successful and unique peacekeeping agreement the world has ever known.’

Today, the global political and military situation is echoing Cold War tensions, fuelled by the economic recovery of Russia and the diminishing international influence of the USA. The passing of time has allowed some previously unknown and secret information to become available. The public has a right to know these facts that will help people understand what really went on during those years.

This book will give the reader an insight into all aspects of NORAD exercises never before gathered in one source. Extensive background information on radar, electronic warfare, air weapons controllers, fighter aircraft and aircrew has been collected to provide top secret details of NORAD defence. Archival research and interviews with RCAF and CAF personnel provide the facts and anecdotes presented in NORAD and the Soviet Nuclear Threat.

In the following chapters you will:

Discover what it is like to be the hunter or the hunted as you fly with fighter aircrew struggling for electronic supremacy with fictitious ‘Soviet’ targets.

Meet the pilot who became the first Canadian ever to win the coveted NORAD ‘Top Gun’ award in 1972.

Read a CAF Navigator’s personal account of the first intercept of a Soviet bomber as it threatened our Canadian shores in the 1960s.

Relive the exercises with the Air Weapons Controllers and Air Surveillance Officers seated at their radar screens deep underground in ‘The Hole’ at North Bay, Ontario.

Comprehend the daily struggle to maintain and prepare a fighter interceptor response that was at the ready 24/365.

Understand how nuclear weapons came to be on Canadian soil while the Canadian government denied possession of such weapons.

This is the story of Canada’s secret electronic air war during the Cold War as told by the many participants, the author included, who stood ‘on guard’ in the effort to preserve Canadian sovereignty. Those who were a part of the Canadian Air Defence system share their experiences with those who want to learn more about our Canadian political and military history.

From far and wide

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Quotation from the Canadian National Anthem.

CHAPTER ONE

The Cold War

Cold War tension was born in the race to capture Berlin. The Second World War was drawing to a close and the triumphant combatants realised that, while they were united in battle which would soon be over, they were divided by ideology. What would happen when all the victorious countries had no common enemy? They would look to their own future. Canada, the USA and Britain were looking to a very different future than the one that the USSR envisioned. The cooling off had begun.

The Cold War can be defined as an extended period of tension between capitalism and communism that manifested itself in military skirmishes of varying seriousness, political manoeuvring and influencing of world economics which changed the very way we lived. The different ideologies were centred in the USA and the USSR, but affected the entire globe. What side are you on, the good guys or the bad guys? If you could not make up your mind to join the Communist side or tended to the other side then you risked being invaded to toe the party line; Hungary in 1956 is a clear example of this.

It would be a long, cool period, forty-two years from 1947 until 1989, until reason prevailed. In 1945, the Second World War ended and the USA and the USSR found themselves as powerful nations with large armies. The difference between the two countries was that the USA had retained its industrial might as its mainland had been remote from the war. The army of the USSR had been beaten back and their country ravaged, all the way to Stalingrad, before the tide of war reversed. It had been a long fightback to recover the territory lost and the Soviet countryside and industrial heartland had been devastated. Both countries were determined to have their political and economic systems survive and prevail during the years ahead.

The Cold War superpowers, the USA and the USSR, played an ideological chess game and countries were the chess board. It ranged from local border skirmishes in Germany and the Korean War to the near cataclysmic stand off during the 1962 Cuban Crisis, when the USSR was shipping missiles to Cuba. Simultaneously there was a race to develop bigger and better weapons that would act as deterrence to the other superpower to keep it in check.

The Korean War involved all three Canadian armed services. The Royal Canadian Air Force 426 Transport Squadron ferried goods and supplies from the USA for the war in Korea. Many missions were flown in support of the war effort. A documented report indicated 599 missions that required 34,000 flying hours. Captain Dan Farrell, whom the author had flown with on 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron, recounted the long flight in the Canadair C-54GM North Star from Washington to Japan with 426 Transport Squadron. The aircraft was unpressurised and had an extremely noisy exhaust from the four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. This contributed to a very long, exhausting, and uncomfortable flight that was repeated throughout the war.

A typical supply mission for Dan was a flight from McChord Air Force Base (AFB), Washington, to Elmendorf AFB (Anchorage), Alaska, to Shemya AFB, Alaska, to Haneda (Tokyo), Japan. His log book showed 38:00 flying hours from 8 to 11 December 1950. The return trip he mentioned was bringing back the wounded by way of Wake Island to Honolulu, Hawaii, to San Francisco to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. His log book showed 35:05 flying hours from 13 to 16 December 1950. The wounded, the sick and the dying on that flight remind us today that a combative war, not a Cold War, is indeed brutal.

Captain Dan Farrell in 2010. (Courtesy of Author)

Although Canada did not send any fighter squadrons to Korea, it did send pilots there on ‘exchange’ with the USAF. A total of twenty-two pilots served on Sabre squadrons and one RCN pilot served with a US Navy Panther fighter squadron. They accounted for a total of nine Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-15s confirmed downed, two probably downed and ten damaged. RCAF pilots were awarded seven US Distinguished Flying Crosses, one Commonwealth Distinguished Flying Cross and four US Air Medals. Canadians flew a total of 1,036 sorties in Korea. One pilot, S/L A. MacKenzie, was shot down accidentally by friendly fire and became a prisoner of war. Canada, in war-effort support, supplied the USAF with sixty F-86 Sabre Mk 2s (USAF F-86 E-6s).

In discussions with Colonel G. (Grant) W. Nicholls regarding his responsibilities as the Commanding Officer of CFB Comox, home of 409 All Weather Fighter Squadron, he mentioned that he had served overseas in Korea. Grant was on exchange tour with the USAF 16th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), flying the North American Sabre from Suwon, South Korea, on fighter sweeps and bomber escort duties over North Korea. Grant recalled that, ‘The Migs were not very active, it was difficult to get any action so you had to be very very aggressive to get any action most of the time. It was an interesting tour.’ The tour was to give RCAF pilots actual combat experience. The duty was for fifty missions or six months, whichever came first. The Cold War was certainly hot for some Canadians, Grant included.

On 16 October 1962, a Lockheed U2, nicknamed ‘Dragon Lady’, on a high altitude surveillance flight discovered, thanks to initial information from the US spy Oleg Penkovsky, the presence of Soviet missile sites under construction in the pro-Soviet island country of Cuba. The island is a mere 150 kilometres from the USA. After careful and extensive deliberation, the line was drawn in the sand. President Kennedy addressed his nation on the 22 October 1962 and he indicated that missiles had been discovered in Cuba and announced a blockade of the island nation. The entire world waited with baited breath to see who, if anyone, would blink first, President Kennedy or Premier Khrushchev? The world was on the brink of a war which probably would be fought with nuclear weapons. Would this be the Third World War? Would it be the final war of the twentieth century or even the last war that the world would ever see – total annihilation?

Tensions were extremely high in the USA for the next three days as the Soviet missile supply ships continued to steam towards the blockade. The RCAF was on high alert due to Canada’s NATO commitments in Europe and NORAD commitments at home. What would Khrushchev do? He, thank goodness for world peace, decided to withdraw the missiles from Cuba and negotiated terms that included a promise that the USA would not invade Cuba. Another Cold War crisis had passed peacefully into history. What happened in the post-war years leading up to the Cuban Crisis, and the subsequent years until the Amalgam Mute exercise in 1973?

To further understand the global history prior to our mission of 1973, a chronological list of world and Canadian events follows. Some events are well known and some are not; they all contributed to the political tensions of their time, which was reflected in the varying degrees of military preparedness. The preparedness of the military could be judged by the budget, the level of training of the troops and the amount of military assets available. Military budgets are directly connected to the mental state of the politicians, when détente prevailed the budget was decreased, when tensions existed the budget was increased!

Cold War World Events during the 1940s

Canadian events in italics