2011 US Airshows

Airshows >> USA> CA: Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake 2011 - Review 2011 sees the United States Navy celebrating 100 years of naval aviation, dubbed the Centennial of Naval Aviation, or CoNA for short. CoNA has been a feature of many US airshows this year, there have been a number of dedicated CoNA events and a few Naval establishments have opened to the public for the first time in a number of years. One of these is the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake in the Mojave Desert in California, which opened its gates to the public for a few hours on October 15th. Chris Wood reports.

The facility at China Lake opened in 1943 as the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) for the purpose of research, development and testing of weapons. That is still its function today and it is now part of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), which also includes the Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu.

There is a large land range at China Lake which, at 1.1 million acres, is the Navy’s largest land holding and the facility employs a total of around 6,000 people, mostly civilians. China Lake is home to two squadrons, the 'Vampires' of VX-9 and the 'Dust Devils' of VX-31, which between them operate a mixed fleet of aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary, from Armitage Field.

The origins of VX-9 go back 50 years to the formation of VX-5 at NAS Moffett Field in 1951. The squadron moved to China Lake in 1956 and, in 1995, it merged with VX-4 from Point Mugu to become VX-9. Its mission is to conduct operational testing and evaluation of weapons, sensors, electronic warfare systems and software upgrades to both aircraft and weapon systems. It currently operates a fleet made up predominantly of F/A-18 Hornets, from the C to the F model plus a pair of EA-18G Growlers, as well as at least one EA-6B Prowler.

VX-31 is a relatively young squadron, formed as recently as April 2002. Its primary mission is to test and evaluate current and future manned and unmanned aircraft, weapons and weapon systems. It also operates an Airborne Test Bed for the Navy’s research community and provides search and rescue cover for the high desert area. Its fleet is also predominantly made up of Hornets and it also operates a small number of AV-8B Harriers, plus a T-39D as the Airborne Test Bed and some H-60s for SAR.

Both squadrons have a number of helicopters on strength, in the shape of the AH-1W, the UH-1Y and the AH-1Z. US Marine Corps aircrew can be found serving with both squadrons and VX-9 currently has two Royal Navy pilots serving with it.

China Lake is also home to a wide variety of other units, some but not all of which are associated with weapons testing. As well as a wide variety of weapons, China Lake’s scientists have also brought us the light stick, which was originally designed for military purposes, and they played a major part in the development of air bags for the car industry.

The open house on 15th October was a relatively low key affair. There were a small number of aircraft from both squadrons on static display and a brief flypast by a pair of VX-9 Hornets. The gates opened at 11am and it is estimated that around 3,000 people attended. VX-31 provided a pair of Hornets, an AV-8B, the T-39D and an AH-1W. VX-9 provided a Super Hornet, a Growler and a Prowler. Visiting was the CoNA schemed S-3B Viking from the 'Bloodhounds' of VX-30 at Point Mugu and a CF-188B Hornet from 410 Squadron of the Canadian Air Force at Cold Lake. There was also an MQ-9A Reaper plus a pair of Vans RVs, one of which had picked up a “visitor”!

The flypast consisted of VX-9's F/A-18E CAG bird plus an F/A-18F Super Hornet. They performed a pairs take off, did one flypast down the runway then dumped fuel and did a run and break to land. They then taxied past right in front of the small crowd on their way back to VX-9's ramp.

Although this was a very small event, the opportunity to get to see inside at China Lake was a rare one, indeed it’s been a few decades since the public were allowed in. Add the glorious weather and it made it well worth the effort to get there. Let’s hope that the opportunity will occur again before too long.

GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.