Point Barrow Long Range Radar Site, Military radar installation in Point Barrow, Alaska.
Point Barrow Long Range Radar Site (LRR Site A-17) is a U.S. Air Force radar station and military airstrip 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Point Barrow, Alaska. A white spherical radome sits on a lattice steel tower above a flat-roofed base building, with a dark metal building and a utility pole carrying power lines nearby. A maroon sign on two grey posts reads "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE — POINT BARROW — LONG RANGE RADAR SITE" between two shield emblems.
The U.S. Army set up a crude radar site at Point Barrow during World War II, and the Navy later used the civil airport's gravel runway for logistics. When the Distant Early Warning Line was announced in 1954, Point Barrow became a main site, and a separate military airstrip was built in 1955. The station controlled seven staffed sites, three auxiliary and four intermediate, and was upgraded into the North Warning System after the 1985 Shamrock Summit agreement.
The site is named after Point Barrow, the headland the US military has occupied since World War II, when the Army set up a crude radar post there. The station's designation, LRR Site A-17, is still used under the North Warning System, which kept the former DEW Line designations. The site is not open to the public.
Access to the site requires special authorization and it is located in an area with extreme weather conditions and very limited infrastructure. Visitors should understand this is an active military facility and the surrounding region experiences severe winter conditions year-round.
The station operates under some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, with temperatures dropping below minus 50 degrees Celsius and months of darkness during polar winter nights. Despite these hardships, it remains one of the furthest north and most valuable air surveillance posts in North America.
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