Early-warning radar

The first early-warning radars were the British Chain Home, the German Freya, the US CXAM (Navy) and SCR-270 (Army), and the Soviet Union . By modern standards these were quite short range, typically about . This "short" distance is a side effect of radio propagation at the long wavelengths being used at the time, which were generally limited to line-of-sight. Although techniques for long-range propagation were known and widely used for shortwave radio, the ability to process the complex return signal was simply not possible at the time. Cold War To counter the threat of Soviet bombers flying over the Arctic, the U.S. and Canada developed the DEW Line. Other examples (Pinetree Line) have since been built with even better performance. An alternative early warning design was the Mid-Canada Line, which provided "line breaking" indication across the middle of Canada, with no provision to identify the target's exact location or direction of travel. Starting in the 1950s, a number of over-the-horizon radars were developed that greatly extended detection ranges, generally by bouncing the signal off the ionosphere. , Pave Paws Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, North Yorkshire|alt=RAF Fylingdales Modern day Today the early warning role has been supplanted to a large degree by airborne early warning platforms. By placing the radar on an aircraft, the line-of-sight to the horizon is greatly extended. This allows the radar to use high-frequency signals, offering high resolution, while still offering long range. A major exception to this rule are radars intended to warn of ballistic missile attacks, like BMEWS, as the high-altitude exo-atmospheric trajectory of these weapons allows them to be seen at great ranges even from ground-based radars. ==Early systems==