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The base was originally constructed in 1933, as a logistics and contruction coordination site for a series of airbases being build across northern Ontatio. Durng World War II it was used fairly extensively as a refueling and emergency diversion airbase for aircraft being ferried from Canada and the US to England. In particular it was one stop along the ferry route for Avro Lancaster bombers being built at Victory Aircraft in Toronto, as well as US-built B-24 Liberators. The base closed with the ending of the war.

The base was re-activated in 1951 as a training base, and the runways were improved. With the rise of the cold war the base became a counstruction center once again when construction started on the Pinetree Line which ran quite close to the base. The runways were again extensively lengthened and the base became the primary air defense site for Toronto and southern Ontario. Typically two wings of night fighters s and a single wing of day fighters were stationed there, originally using the CF-100 Canuck/ F-86 Sabre, and later the F-101 VoodooF-101 Voodoo Description Role Fighter bomber CrewOne Dimensions Length67. 55 m Wingspan39. 09 m Height18 ft5. 49 m Wing area368 sq ft34. 19 m² Weights Empty28,970 lb13,141 kg Loaded51,000 lb23,133 kg Maximum take-off52,400 lb23,768 kg Powerplant EnginesTw/ F-104 StarfighterLockheed F-104G Starfighter Description RoleMulti-role fighter aircraft Crewone Powerplant 1x General Electric J79-GE-11A turbojet Thrust48 kN (10,000 lb) dry, 69. 37 kN (15,600 lb) in afterburner Dimensions Length16. 66 m54 ft 8 in Wingspan6. 36 m 21 ft combinations.

With the formation of NORADNORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command . It is a joint United States and Canadian organization which provides aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America, and was founded on August 1, 1957 under the name North American Air Def in the 1950s and the US's introduction of the SAGESAGE is also the name of a system administrators' professional organization. SAGE the Semi Automated Ground Environment was an automated control system for collecting, tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft used by NORAD from the late 1950s into system, CFB North Bay was selected as the Canadian counterpart to the US's Cheyenne MountainCheyenne Mountain a mountain located in Colorado, is the location of a major United States military command base. Also known as Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center (CMOC). Current role Today, Cheyenne Mountain is known as Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Stati control center. A SAGE installation was set up at the base starting in 1959, but unlike their US counterparts which were at ground level, in North Bay the entire standard three story installation was buried underground in what became known as "the hole". Later the base was also used as the control center for the Ontario portion of the two-site BOMARC missile system installed in the 1960s.

The BOMARC missiles were decommissioned in 1973, and the SAGE installation in 1983, with parts of the North Bay SAGE computers ending up in the Computer History Museum in California. From 1972 on only a single fighter wing was stationed there, the 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron.

CFB North Bay remains Canada's primary NORAD site, monitoring all air traffic over Canada and North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea by the North Warning SystemThe North Warning System (NWS) is a series of radar stations across Arctic North America. It provides surveillance of airspace from potential incursions or attacks from across North America's polar region. The NWS consists of 13 long-range radars (11 in C, across the Canadian Arctic, coastal radars on the east and west coasts of Canada, and Airborne Warning and Control System Aircraft . The personnel monitoring the air is called the 21 Aerospace Control and Warning Squadron . Any unidentified aircraft, aircraft in distress or suspicious aircraft are intercepted by CF-18s.

With the general scaling-back of air defences at the end of the cold war, CFB North Bay was originally slated for closure and the 22nd Wing was to move to central command in Winnipeg. However the city of North Bay was worried about the loss of jobs, and entered into a cost-sharing arrangement to service the base. Part of this arrangement is the proposal to replace the underground command center with a new one on the surface, but to date construction has not started.

External Link:

• Department of National Defence Canada - CFB North Bay (22 Wing)