
Address
Code 4L4000D
1900 N. Knox Road STOP 6306
China Lake, CA 93555-6106
United StatesDescription
The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake is
located about 150 miles north of Los Angeles, and covers over a
million acres of Southern California's Mojave Desert. In 1943,
adequate facilities were needed for test and evaluation of rockets
developed by the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). At
the same time, the Navy needed a new proving ground for all
aviation ordnance. The Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) was
established in response to those needs in November 1943. This vast,
sparsely populated desert, with near-perfect flying weather
year-round and practically unlimited visibility, proved an ideal
location not only for test and evaluation (T&E) activities, but
also for a complete research and development (R&D)
establishment as well. The early Navy-CalTech partnership
established a pattern of cooperative interaction between civilian
scientists and experienced military personnel that has made China
Lake one of the preeminent RDT&E institutions in the world. In
1967 NOTS became the Naval Weapons Center and now it is known as
the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake. There
are approximately 4,200 civilian employees, including 1,000
scientists and engineers, and 450 military personnel at China Lake.
The estimated annual budget is approximately $800 million.
Mission
NAWCWPNS provides technical and material
support to the fleet for land-based flight test and evaluation of
Navy weapons systems, conducts high-energy laser systems and
subsystems test and evaluation, serves as launch agent for
suborbital space systems and research rockets, and participates in
the operation of the DoD Missile Test Range at White Sands Missile
Range.