Army Air Defense Command Post
Highlands, NJ
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Army Air Defense Command Post Highlands, NJ |
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During 1948 the fledgling United States Air Force
established an early warning radar site at Highlands, New Jersey, one of
the highest
points on the east coast of the United States. The site had
already been in use
by the Army as a Coast Artillery battery that was inactivated
shortly after the end of the Second World War.
The Army returned to the site during 1960, with a new air defense related
mission. The blast and fallout resistant Missile Master facility which
became operational at the
Highlands base in that year contained a complex and costly,
semi-automated system capable of tracking hostile aircraft
and assigning Nike missile
batteries in New York and New Jersey to engage them. Later, the
Highlands site also assumed control of the Nike missile batteries located
in the Philadelphia Defense Area.
The Highlands base also served as the headquarters for
various Army air defense units in the
region. Although the Air Force closed its Long Range Radar site
during 1966, the Army's facility remained operational through
1974 when the last Nike missile batteries in the region were
inactivated.
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