History of Gibbsboro AFS, NJ

Initially this site, located twelve miles east of Philadelphia, was operating during the late 1950s as a gap-filler radar site (P-9A) with an AN/FPS-14 radar (the first gap-filler site in the nation). Circa 1960, the US Army set up an early-warning radar station at the Gibbsboro site for the Nike missile air-defense system around Philadelphia under the control of Pedricktown, NJ (PH-64DC). In a fund-saving consolidation, the Air Force moved site designation P-63 and the 772nd Radar Squadron from Claysburg AFS, Pennsylvania, to this Army long-range radar site, and deactivated the P-9A gap-filler radar. The Army site was transferred to the Air Force, and Gibbsboro AFS began Air Force long-range radar operations in 1961 with AN/FPS-66 and AN/FPS-6 radars. The station initially fed data to the SAGE direction center at McGuire AFB. An AN/FPS-27 was installed in 1963, and the AN/FPS-66 was retired in 1964. In 1963 the site also used AN/FPS-6A and AN/FPS-26A height-finder radars. (The Army's Nike Missile Master at Pedrickstown was discontinued 15 October 1964.) The Gibbsboro radar site became an ADC/FAA joint-use facility around 1966. The 772nd Radar Squadron (SAGE) continued operating the AN/FPS-27 and AN/FPS-26A radars until 1983. The squadron was deactivated in 1984. However, an AN/FPS-117 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, 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.

References: "Searching the Skies"; misc. ADCOM documents; eyewitness accounts.


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