Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

Palo Verde Gap Filler Annex SM-162D

 

 

A sub-installation of Kingman Air Force Station, Arizona. This site provided radar coverage for those areas where geography blocked the radar at Kingman AFS

 

US Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District History (1989)

On 26 February 1957, pursuant to the Department of Interior Regulations 44-LD-513 and and Army Corps of Engineers Real Estate Directive No. 6350 the Department of the Air Force acquired 0.49 acres of land from the Department of Interior. The vacant desert land was developed into a 0.29 acre site and a 0.20 acre 20' access road thereto.

The Air Force constructed a Gap Filler Facility and access road. The site was used as a radar gap filler station. The improvements included a Gap Filler Main Building, a Navaid Caisson Type Tower, a sanitary latrine, a 15,000 gallon heat fuel underground storage tank, a 10' x 482' road with 2' shoulder, a culvert for drainage disposal, and fences.

The installation was deactivated after 1 September 1960. The site was reported as excess on 18 November 1960 and disposal action was initiated. After the removal of electrical equipment, the property was released on 1 July 1961 to the Deparment of Interior. On 6 October 1965, 0.49 acres were officially retransferred to the Department of Interior. The Bureau of Land Management

 

 

Typical AN/FPS-14 Gap Filler Radar

 

"During the late 1950s another area of progress was the development and deployment of AN/FPS-14 and AN/FPS-18 gap-filler radars. Having a range of around sixty-five miles, these radars were placed in areas where it was thought enemy aircraft could fly low to avoid detection by the longer-range radars of the permanent and mobile radar networks. Gap-filler radar deployment peaked in December 1960 at 131 sites throughout the continental United States. Because the introduction of gap-filler radars alleviated the need for civilians to scan the skies for enemy bombers, the ADC disestablished the Ground Observer Corps on January 31, 1959."

 

Searching The Skies
USAF Air Combat Command
June, 1997

 

Typical floorplan of a Gap Filler Annex

 

 

 

 

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Updated 8 February 2016