Gibbsboro Air Force Station is a closed

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

General Surveillance Radar station. It is located south-southeast of Gibbsboro, in Camden County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. It was closed in 1994 by the Air Force, and turned over to the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

(FAA). Today the site is part of the

Joint Surveillance System The Joint Surveillance System (JSS) is a joint United States Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It replaced the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system in 1983. Overvie ...

(JSS), designated by

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

Eastern Air Defense Sector The Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is a United States Air Force unit of Air Combat Command (ACC), permanently assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A joint, bi-national military organization, EADS is composed of U ...

(EADS) Ground Equipment Facility.

History

What would eventually become Gibbsboro AFS was established in March 1957 as an unmanned "Gap Filler" site, designated P-9A for

Highlands Air Force Station Highlands Air Force Station was a military installation in Middletown Township near the borough of Highlands, New Jersey. The station provided ground-controlled interception radar coverage as part of the Lashup Radar Network and the Semi-Autom ...

, New Jersey, configured with an

AN/FPS-14 The AN/FPS-14 was a medium-range search Radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command. This medium-range search radar was designed and built by Bendix as a SAGE system gap-filler radar to provide low-altitude coverage. Operating i ...

radar. It was the first Gap Filler site in the nation. In 1960, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

established Army Air Defense Command Post (AADCP) PH-64DC for

Nike missile The United States Army's Nike Ajax was the world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile (SAM), entering service in 1954. Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes above ...

command-and-control functions at Pedrickstown Army Installation. The site was an AN/FSG-l Missile-Master Radar Direction Center. In a fund-saving consolidation, the Air Force moved the 772d Radar Squadron (SAGE) from

Claysburg Air Force Station Claysburg Air Force Station (ADC ID: P-63) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located west of Claysburg, Pennsylvania. It was closed in 1961 due to budget constraints. The unit was eventually move ...

, Pennsylvania, to this Army long-range radar site, and inactivated the P-9A gap-filler radar. The Army site was transferred to the Air Force, and renamed Gibbsboro Air Force Station. The site was redesignated as RP-53 and began Air Force long-range radar operations on 1 May 1961 with

AN/FPS-66 The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States, ...

and

AN/FPS-6 The AN/FPS-6 Radar was a long-range height finding radar used by the United States Air Force's Air Defense Command. The AN/FPS-6 radar was introduced into service in the late 1950s and served as the principal height-finder radar for the United Stat ...

radars. The center initially fed data to the SAGE (DC-01) center at

McGuire AFB McGuire AFB/McGuire, the common name of the McGuire unit of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Air Force base in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, approximately south-southeast of Trenton. McGuire is under the ju ...

. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-63. In addition, an

AN/FPS-27 The AN/FPS-27 Radar was a Long Range search radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command. Westinghouse built a Frequency Diverse (FD) search radar designed to operate in the S-band from 2322 to 2670 MHz. The radar was design ...

radar was installed in 1963, and the AN/FPS-66 was retired in 1964. In 1963 the site also used

A and AN/FPS-26A height-finder radars. The site became an ADC/

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

joint-use facility around 1966. Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. The 772nd Radar Squadron continued operating the

and AN/FPS-26A radars until 1983. The squadron was inactivated in 1984. However, an

AN/FPS-117 The AN/FPS-117 is an L-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) 3-dimensional air search radar first produced by GE Aerospace in 1980 and now part of Lockheed Martin. The system offers instrumented detection at ranges on the order of and h ...

became operational in 1986 under contractor support. This radar served as a prototype for units installed in Alaska. After shutdown in 1992, this radar was moved to

Murphy Dome Air Force Station Murphy Dome Air Force Station (AAC ID: F-02, LRR ID: A-02) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station west-northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. The control center station was closed on 1 November 1983, and was re-designat ...

, Alaska. Radar coverage for the Philadelphia area was assumed by the FAA's site at Trevose, PA. Then, a portion of the Gibbsboro site was transferred to the FAA in 1995 for installation of an ARSR-4 set, and the Trevose site was shut down. Today what was Gibsboro AFS has largely been disassembled. The FAA

(JSS) radar radome and a few old Air Force buildings is about all that remains. Among those buildings, the old Gap Filler support building from 1957 still stands.

Air Force units and assignments

Units

* 772d Radar Squadron (SAGE), moved from

, PA, 1 May 1961 : Redesignated as 772d Radar Squadron on 1 February 1974 : Inactivated ''ca''. 31 December 1984

Assignments

New York Air Defense Sector The Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is a United States Air Force unit of Air Combat Command (ACC), permanently assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A joint, bi-national military organization, EADS is composed of US ...

, 1 May 1961 * 21st Air Division, 1 April 1966 * 35th Air Division, 1 December 1967 * 21st Air Division, 19 November 1969 *

, 1 June 1992 – December 1984

References

* Cornett, Lloyd H. and Johnson, Mildred W.,
A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946–1980
'', Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson AFB, CO (1980). * Winkler, David F. & Webster, Julie L.,
Searching the Skies
', The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, IL (1997).
Information for Gibbsboro AFS, NJ

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080908083122/http://www.gibbsboro.com/afbase.html *http://www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=Gibbsboro,+NJ

{{Aerospace Defense Command, state=collapsed Installations of the United States Air Force in New Jersey Radar stations of the United States Air Force Aerospace Defense Command military installations Buildings and structures in Camden County, New Jersey 1957 establishments in New Jersey Military installations established in 1957 Military installations closed in 1984 1984 disestablishments in New Jersey