San Nicolas Island, California
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San Nicolas Island is the most northwesterly of the four southern Channel Islands. Like its eastern neighbor San Clemente Island, San Nicolas is a US Navy owned and operated island. Located 65 nautical miles southwest of the Point Mugu complex, San Nicolas Island is the cornerstone in the Sea Range capabilities. The waters surrounding the island are split into three zones that are controlled by the Navy.
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SEA RANGE Point Mugu, California
The Sea Range at Point Mugu, Calif., is DoD’s largest and most extensively instrumented over-water range that offers realistic, open-ocean and littoral operating environments. Located off the coast of Southern California just 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Sea Range is uniquely situated with a highly instrumented coastline and off-shore islands; full-service military airfields; target and missile launch facilities; data collection and surveillance aircraft; and an experienced staff of technical personnel. The Sea Range consists of 36,000 square miles of controlled sea and airspace. Temporary expansion of the area is possible through coordination with local Navy facilities and the FAA. The range supports the test and evaluation of a wide variety of weapons, ships, aircraft and specialized systems for a broad spectrum of military, Homeland Defense, NASA, foreign ally, and private sector programs; from small-scale static tests to complex multi-participant, multi-target operations in dense electronic combat environments.
Instrumentation includes radar, telemetry, photo-optics and video, sea and air surveillance, voice communications, and data processing and displays. Time Space Position Information (TSPI), telemetry, communications and geophysics support is all available at the Sea Range. Overlapping instrumentation coverage is provided from sites at Point Mugu, Laguna Peak, San Nicolas Island, Santa Cruz Island, Vandenberg Air Force Base and Pillar Point. These ground-based assets are augmented by airborne instrumentation on NP-3D Orion aircraft to ensure effective data collection over the entire Sea Range. Dedicated high-speed data links enable real-time data transfer between Point Mugu and ranges and laboratories at China Lake, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Edwards Air Force Base.
Aerial, seaborne and littoral targets are available through the Port Hueneme facility, which provides surface craft for seaborne targets; boats for aerial target recovery; and vessels to enforce security and safety zones.
Sea Range program support includes:
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