Inyokern, California

Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern, China Lake Dewey, William/public domain

Naval Ordnance Test Station

To ensure a weapon works, it must be tested. Testing often is done within the United States’ own borders in open, unpopulated areas such as high deserts and dried-up lake beds. China Lake, outside of Inyokern in Southern California, provided the U.S. Navy with just such a location to test equipment before it was used by American service men and women around the world.

In 1943, near the small high-desert town of Inyokern and the dried-up bed of China Lake, the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) was established to test and evaluate weapons. James Johnson worked as an ordnance man at NOTS from 1944 until the end of the war. He shared that the desert environment and remoteness of the site meant the Navy had a usable testing ground nearly year-round — something that Los Alamos, New Mexico, lacked.

During the Manhattan Project, the site played a role in developing non-nuclear explosive bomb components as a part of Project Camel. “Camel” refers to how difficult it is to dislodge a camel once it gets its nose into something — Caltech researchers had the same attribute. China Lake remained a development site for Project Camel until the 1950s.

Between the end of Project Camel and the 1990s, the site hosted various labs and personnel for the Naval Weapons Center (NWC). In the 1970s, a new technological era began, and NWC began to develop computer systems for aircraft called “avionics.” These new systems were placed in aircraft being developed and tested at the site. Today, these innovations are seen in widely-used aeronautic systems, from displays to landing systems to alerts.

Bibliography

Bakersfield CalifornianAtomic Heritage Foundation. “James O. Johnson, Ordnanceman, Los Alamos, NM.” https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/james-o-johnson/, accessed February 11, 2025.

China Lake Museum Foundation, 1993. The Rocketeer, Brief History, https://chinalakemuseum.org/brief-history, accessed November 27, 2024.

Young, C., 1987b. “Memorandum: Elimination Recommendation – Naval Ordnance Test Station,” https://lmpublicsearch.lm.doe.gov/lmsites/6549-ca.06-1.pdf, accessed November 27, 2024.

Where this belongs

• Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Where this page came from

This page was imported from National Park Service. Produced by the U.S. National Park Service and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.