Rancocas, New Jersey - Cornfield Cruiser - USS Rancocas (LS-1)

Thought you might like a picture of the USS Rancocas, the "Cornfield Cruiser", located in Rancocas (Moorestown?) NJ. I spent many hours there (equally balanced with time spent at Ott's Tavern just down the road). Back in the early '70s it was a US Air Force Space Command site. It had a huge radome (golf ball) on it. The Navy took over the site for Aegis weapon system testing and crew training. [Hans Schneider, 01/20/2001]

Having worked at the "Cornfield Cruiser," or "Ship in the Cornfield," here's what goes on there:

It is the test facility for the U.S. Navy's AEGIS Fleet Defense System. The facility is commissioned as: USS Rancocas.

The USS Rancocas does have a designator (BB=Battleship;CL=Light Cruiser, etc.) but I don't remember what it is. It may be LBT (Land Based Test facility), LLS (Land Locked Ship), or LBS (Land Based Ship)?

It is in a cornfield because the land upon which it is built is owned by a farmer that still grows corn there. The owners of the facility have a 99-year lease. Upgrades developed at this facility are then installed on the USS Norton Sound for testing at sea. The final product is then transfered to combat ships, USS Ticonderoga for example.

Every year, on the first Saturday in December, the Rancocas is decorated with flags that read "GO NAVY" and "BEAT ARMY." [Phil Willows, 03/11/1999]

[RA: Photo of interior provided by Hans Schneider. August 2007 - Tipster "Stuart" writes about the official designation: "I was stationed there and it is USS Rancocas (LS-1). LS-1 is land site one."]

Visible off on western side of the New Jersey Turnpike around mile marker 39, seemingly rising out of the fields, is a building, painted battleship grey, that is topped with a full-size replica of the superstructure of a naval vessel. A sign out front declares that this is "Surface Warfare Systems." Friends of mine all refer to it as the Cornfield Cruiser. [Jeff Dunne, 11/24/1998]