Longstaff Bluff DEW Line Station

Military conversion and technological obsolescence. The airport was an integral part of the Longstaff Bluff DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line station. The entire DEW Line system was rendered technologically obsolete by the advent of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and satellite surveillance. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the DEW Line was decommissioned and replaced by the more advanced and largely automated North Warning System (NWS). As the new NWS site at Longstaff Bluff (BAF-4A) was automated and required significantly less personnel and logistical support, the associated airstrip was no longer needed for regular operations and was closed.

The site is now an active, but unmanned, North Warning System (NWS) Short Range Radar station, designated BAF-4A. After the DEW Line was shut down, the original station was subject to an extensive environmental cleanup and remediation project to remove hazardous materials like PCBs, asbestos, and contaminated soil left over from the Cold War era. The old buildings were demolished, and the site was restored. The modern, automated NWS radar facility requires only periodic maintenance visits by helicopter. The original airstrip is officially abandoned, unmaintained, and not suitable for regular use, though its physical outline may still be visible.

Longstaff Bluff was a critical component of the Cold War's Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, a chain of over 60 radar and communication stations across the Arctic. Designated as FOX-C (or FOX-Charlie), it was an Auxiliary Radar Station within the FOX Main sector, which was controlled from Hall Beach (FOX-M). Its primary mission, from its activation in 1957, was to detect incoming Soviet bombers flying over the polar region and provide early warning to NORAD command centers in the United States and Canada. The 3,500-foot gravel airstrip was essential for the station's existence, facilitating the transportation of construction materials, heavy equipment, fuel, supplies, and personnel in a remote and inaccessible region. It regularly handled military transport aircraft such as the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, C-124 Globemaster II, and later the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airstrip. Its original purpose was purely military and logistical support for an obsolete system. The current NWS installation is automated and does not require a dedicated airfield. Given its extreme remoteness, harsh climate, and the absence of any civilian population or economic drivers in the immediate vicinity, there is no practical or financial justification for its reactivation.