Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division

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Official NAWCWD page. NAWCWD represents excellence in weapons RDAT&E Welcome to the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division page.

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10/31/2026

Part of the story behind the glow sticks on trick-or-treaters tonight happened at China Lake.

In the 1960s, our researchers packed glowing chemicals into grenades and marker sticks and sent them to Vietnam for field evaluation. Over the decades, we also developed chemical lights for life rafts and for reading maps.

We didn't discover the glow. Scientists at Bell Labs did early work on the chemistry, and Michael Rauhut of American Cyanamid invented the Cyalume light stick in 1971. We worked with American Cyanamid on a brighter formula.

In the 1970s, our chemists Herb Richter and Ruth Tedrick invented their own light stick: Chemlite.

Bend it to break a small glass capsule inside. The liquids mix, and it glows for up to 12 hours.

Today, from the battlefield to the boardwalk to the sidewalks tonight, the glow still lights the way.

Happy .

10/29/2026

75 years ago, we used ch*****ne to christen a barge made of leftover pontoons.

One of our Pasadena employees called her “a bunch of pontoons with some shacks on it.”

in 1951, that barge became the first vessel in our own small test fleet. We named her Trygon. She rolled in the waves and people laughed, but she worked.

Crews could lower a platform through a hole in her deck, as deep as 600 feet, and launch weapons underwater from it.

In 1956, her gear moved to a new landing craft hull. Trygon got hull number YFU-44 and became an official Navy vessel.

10/28/2026

Travis Canfield has to remind his engineers to slow down.

He leads our Exploratory Development Lab, which builds quick-turn prototypes for urgent warfighter needs. When Naval Special Warfare needed kits to balance its Blackjack unmanned aircraft for flight, Canfield’s team delivered close to 50 in two and a half weeks.

The work keeps moving because Canfield handles the red tape.

His team even gave him a perfect score on “My supervisor cares about me.”

Last week, Naval Air Systems Command named Canfield its 2026 Supervisor of the Year for China Lake. He’s among 11 winners out of 258 nominations.

“Wait, slow down. This is important, but so is your family,” Canfield said.

👇 Full story in the comments.

10/27/2026

President John F. Kennedy asked what could beat the Soviet missiles guarding Cuba's skies.

“The only thing we had was some people out at NOTS China Lake that have this thing that might work.”

That was Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s answer, as China Lake’s Ernest Cozzens later recalled.

in 1962, one of those Soviet missiles shot down a U-2. No American weapon was ready to hunt the radar behind that missile.

That thing at China Lake was Shrike. A missile that followed a radar's own signal home. We'd been developing it since 1958.

In May 1963, Washington gave us 9 months to get it ready for operational use.

Our people built every guidance section for that effort themselves and put in 60-hour weeks for months.

We delivered the thing that might work to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in January 1964. On time and on budget.

10/23/2026

As a Marine, he relied on civilians for the gear he needed. Now he’s the civilian.

Dwayne Fochler built bombs during the Gulf War and made Marines for three years on the drill field.

Today he runs logistics for our subsonic aerial targets. These drones simulate enemy aircraft and missiles so ships and jets can test their defenses.

On Sept. 30, Fochler received his 40-year Length-of-Service Award.

“If I can’t give them the tools to do the job, then I’m failing in
my job,” he said.

⬇️ Full story in the comments.

10/19/2026

“These are the people you want to see when you are having a very bad day.”

Marine Corps Lt. Col. Timothy Burchett said Oct. 8 at China Lake as he turned command of VX-31 over to Cmdr. James Licata.

The squadron’s MH-60 Seahawk crews have rescued dozens of injured hikers and downed aviators. Their patrols ranged from Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, to Death Valley’s Badwater Basin, North America’s lowest point.

Burchett had more. VX-31 teams camped out with sleeping bags to deliver a capability in two weeks. They rewired lab equipment over weekends to complete a mission-computer build in under 45 days.

Licata said this team’s fingerprints are on every major capability headed to the nation’s defense. His job now is to keep the road clear.

⬇️ Full story in the comments.

10/17/2026

“I want it. This is it!”

Dr. Charles Lauritsen said that when his plane landed on the Inyokern airstrip in 1943. He was hunting for a place to test rockets.

in 1943, Caltech’s rocket scientists toured the empty valley that became China Lake. They found about 100 residents, a railroad, paved highways, power lines and a 4,500-foot airstrip with no aircraft on it.

Caltech had outgrown the Army lakebed near Barstow, and the Navy wanted its rockets on thousands of aircraft. Lauritsen and Capt. Sherman Burroughs put both needs in 1 proposal.

Washington said yes.

7 weeks after the tour, 2 Navy dive bombers fired the first 40 rockets over the new ranges.

The Navy planned the town for 1,000 people. A year later, 8,000 lived there. Today 28,000 live in Ridgecrest, and Armitage Field launches more than 20,000 military sorties a year.

10/16/2026

He felt honored to be one of more than 4,000 people who single-handedly invented Sidewinder.

That was Dr. Walter B. LaBerge’s joke. He told it years after he worked on the original Sidewinder development team.

Hundreds of people from every department at China Lake helped turn the idea into a weapon.

in 1956, the Navy revealed what the Associated Press called its “hitherto secret air missile.” Sidewinder was already at sea. Attack Squadron 46 had carried it aboard the carrier Randolph since July.

Today the AIM-9X is the 5th generation of that missile, and the team that runs its upgrades works at China Lake.

Did you or someone in your family help build or improve Sidewinder? Tell us who.

10/13/2026

The Navy turns 251 today, and we've been arming it for 82 of those years.

in 1775, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two ships to hunt British transports carrying weapons and supplies. That's nearly nine months before the Declaration of Independence.

In 1943, the Navy needed to arm 6,000 aircraft with rockets. It needed a place to test them, fast. It set up China Lake in the Mojave Desert. Within a month, rockets were flying. Fleet squadrons stopped in to train on their way to combat in the Pacific.

Point Mugu followed in 1946 as the Navy's first sea range built to track missile tests.

Today, we’re testing drones and missiles for the fleet of 2040.

Happy birthday, U.S. Navy

10/12/2026

In 2003, the Air Force pulled out of this weapon's production. Each one cost the Navy $53,000 more.

The program was at risk.

Raytheon redesigned it with fewer parts, and our test squadron, VX-31, helped make it cheaper. The price fell by more than 25%.

By 2005, the savings were enough for 547 more weapons. They also paid for part of an upgrade to hit moving ships.

in 2006, Joint Standoff Weapon Block II made its first Navy test flight on an F/A-18 over China Lake. It was successful. 5 years later, VX-31 launched the upgraded JSOW C-1 over our Point Mugu Sea Range. It located a moving 260-foot target ship and hit it.

The weapon the Navy risked losing now arms Super Hornets and F-35Cs.

Address

1 Admin Circle
China Lake, CA
93555

Telephone

+17609393511

Website

http://www.navair.navy.mil/nawcwd

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