NAWS China Lake
Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a 1.1 million acre military facility located in the Mojave Desert of California, approximately 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The mission of NAWS China Lake is to conduct state-of-the-art weapons research, development, test, acquisition and evaluation (RDAT&E) for weapon systems associated with air warfare, aircraft weapons integration, missiles and missile subsystems, and assigned airborne electronic warfare systems and related training within a safe and secure, and operationally diverse land range test environment.
China Lake was established in 1943 when the Navy was looking for a sparsely populated area with near perfect flying weather and practically unlimited visibility that could handle the mission of serving as a research, development and testing area for weapons. An early partnership established a pattern of cooperation and interaction between civilian scientists and engineers, the military and defense contractor support that continues to this day.
NAWS China Lake operates on land that is owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), but has been widthdrawn for military use under the California Desert Protection Act.