The United States Navy proposed to the U.S. Congress the development of a lighter-than-air station program for anti-submarine patrolling of the coast and harbors. This program proposed, in addition to the expansion at Naval Air Station and Lakehurst, the construction of new stations. The original contract was for steel hangars, 960 ft (290 m) long, 328 ft (100 m) wide and 190 ft (58 m) high, helium storage and service, barracks for 228 men, a power plant, landing mat, and a mobile mooring mast.
The Second Deficiency Appropriation Bill for 1941 passed in July 1941, changing the authorization to the construction of eight facilities to accommodate a total of 48 airships (as requested in 1940). Some of these new hangars were built at Lakehurst, Moffett, Weymouth and Weeksville; bases which already had metal hangars.