A recent post in my ‘hidden gems’ series highlighted Naval Base Ventura County, the Navy organization (and property) that takes care of over 75 tenant organizations that include the Coast Guard Air Station Ventura. My next three ‘gems’ posts pick three tenants that are both Navy commands and federal laboratories. The first of these is the Naval Air Warfare Center - Weapons Division (NAWC-WD).

I was at Fathomwerx last week for a meeting where a civilian engineer from NAWC-WD was introducing her command to the group. She opened and closed her presentation with the fact that NAWC-WD is a command that’s responsible for the things that ‘go boom’. She said that with pride and some excitement because this is sophisticated, dangerous, and impactful work. It’s also work that requires assets and expertise that generates technology that has value outside the defense industry. But more on that, later.

“Every missile that goes out in the theater to be used on a ship or aircraft has been tested by NAWC-WD,” she said. One of NAWC-WD’s main jobs is to make sure fleet weapon systems work as designed and work reliably. To test and evaluate these weapon systems, electronic warfare, and electronic countermeasures, NAWC-WD manages some of the largest test ranges in the world.

NAWC-WD manages the Point Mugu Sea Range, a 36,000 square mile expanse of ocean surface and islands for conducting tests and exercises. If the Navy needs more area for a test, the range can be extended indefinitely in coordination with the Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration!

NAWC-WD also manages the China Lake Range in the high desert of the western Mojave. Covering a land area larger than the state of Rhode Island, the 1.1 million acres of test range has allowed the Navy and Marine Corps to test almost every airborne weapon system in the last 50 years. Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is in Ridgecrest, CA, and is home to advanced technology, STEM laboratories, and top-notch civilian scientists and engineers.

I want to conclude this post with a note about NAWC-WD and drones. This is where drone technology was born. Point Mugu started life as an anti-aircraft training center during World War II, and then it became the home for missile development. Drones were originally developed as missile targets. Drone expertise continued to develop to support NAWC-WD’s mission as a testing and evaluation command for the Navy, and that expertise has made NAWC-WD a world leader in aerial and sea surface drone technologies (i.e., boats). A future ‘gems’ post will talk about the largest drone in the world, and another post or two will talk about how Ventura County is about to become the go-to place for testing autonomous vehicle technologies.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions about NBVC. You can find me on Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Bluesky.

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