CFS Alert

Canadian Forces Station Alert – On top of the world

Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert is the most northerly, permanently inhabited location in the world, located only 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole.

On April 1, 2009, the Air Force took command of CFS Alert. It is now a unit of 8 Wing Trenton, Ont.

The station was first settled in the early 1950s as a weather station of the Joint Arctic Weather Station (JAWS) System. On Sept. 1, 1958, Alert began its operational role as a signals intelligence unit of the Canadian Forces. At that time, it became the Alert Wireless Station and was under the command of the Canadian Army.