ARMED FORCES: Filling the DEW Gap

In the great, fanlike sweep of DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar that stretches for 9,000 miles across land and sea to guard the Arctic approaches to North America, there is still one glaring and worrisome gap: the unscanned air corridor across Greenland. In Washington last week, U.S. Army Engineers announced awards of $27 million in contracts to fill the Greenland gap with four DEW radar bases. A Danish firm will build bases on Greenland’s east and west coasts. A U.S. firm, Peter Kiewit Sons Co., will build two inland stations with a new look: the main buildings will be raised and lowered by huge motor-operated jacks designed to keep the radar-topped structures 15 ft. above the snowdrifts. Like other DEW bases, the Greenland stations will be manned almost entirely by civilian technicians.