Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the U.S. Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Installations Command, and was originally known as Naval Ordnance Test Station.The installation is located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California, approximately 150 miles north of Los Angeles. Occupying land in three counties – Kern, San Bernardino, and Inyo – the installation's closest neighbors are the city of Ridgecrest and the communities of Inyokern, Trona, and Darwin.

China Lake is the U.S. Navy's largest single landholding, representing 85% of the Navy's land for weapons and armaments research, development, acquisition, testing and evaluation use and 38% of the Navy's land holdings worldwide. In total, its two ranges and main site cover more than 1,100,000 acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.