NoneCA 🇨🇦 Closed Airport
CA-0325
-
- ft
CA-NU
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 68.549243° N, -83.320996° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
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Approximately 1989-1990. The station ceased operations as part of the shutdown of the DEW Line system.
Military Conversion and Technological Obsolescence. The Sarcpa Lake station was an Intermediate Station on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line. The entire DEW Line was rendered technologically obsolete by the advent of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and improved satellite surveillance. In the mid-1980s, the United States and Canada agreed to replace the DEW Line with the more advanced and largely automated North Warning System (NWS). Sarcpa Lake (FOX-3) was not selected for an upgrade to an NWS site and was consequently decommissioned and abandoned along with all other intermediate stations.
The site is abandoned and has undergone extensive environmental remediation. After its closure, the station, like most DEW Line sites, was left with significant environmental contaminants, including PCBs, lead-based paint, and fuel spills. From the mid-1990s through the 2000s, the Canadian Department of National Defence undertook a massive, multi-year DEW Line Clean-Up Project. The project involved the demolition of abandoned buildings, the removal of hazardous materials, and the remediation of contaminated soil. Today, the site consists of the remediated land and the faint outline of the former gravel airstrip, which is unmaintained, unusable for aviation, and slowly being reclaimed by the arctic tundra. There is no infrastructure or human presence at the site.
Sarcpa Lake DEW Line Station, designated 'FOX-3', was a critical component of Cold War continental defence. As an Intermediate Station on the DEW Line, its primary function was to fill the radar coverage gap between the larger Main Stations (like FOX-Main at Hall Beach). It was equipped with an AN/FPS-19 L-band search radar to detect low-flying Soviet bombers attempting to penetrate North American airspace over the Arctic. The gravel airstrip, approximately 3,200 feet long, was essential for the station's existence. It facilitated the logistical support chain, enabling the transport of personnel, food, fuel, and equipment via aircraft like the C-47 Skytrain and, later, the C-130 Hercules. The station was operated by civilian contractors under the direction of the United States Air Force and was a symbol of the immense engineering and logistical effort required to build and maintain a defence line in one of the world's harshest environments.
Zero. There are no plans or prospects for reopening the Sarcpa Lake airstrip. Its original military purpose is obsolete, and its extremely remote location in Nunavut, far from any communities or economic resources, gives it no civilian, commercial, or strategic value. The cost to rebuild, maintain, and operate an airport in this arctic environment would be prohibitive and without any justifiable purpose.
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