Website information at www.nawcwd.navy.mil heading Ranges

By Doris G. Lance

NAVAIR Weapons Divsion Point Mugu, Calif.--A joint range operations center, named the Kenneth I. Lichti Range Operations Center, will officially open its doors Friday, Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Point Mugu.

The 11.5 million-dollar project will provide a 30,000 square feet, multi-story building to house sea range test planning, scheduling, critical data collection, flight termination systems and operational synthesis for interconnectivity of weapons development, testing and evaluation.

The new warfare concept capabilities of the range center will link laboratories and test ranges worldwide to test and improve missiles and weapons for real and simulated battlefield threats.

Initially, 30 engineers, technicians, office personnel, pilots and test managers will accompany the facility followed by full-operational data processing computers, control consoles, range safety displays, test bay instrumentation and an additional 20 personnel by 2005.

Adjacent to the 36,000 square-mile Point Mugu sea range, this addition will offer military branches of the Dept. of Defense and allied forces a multitude of large-scale training involving air-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air exercises.

Tours of the facility will be offered after the ribbon cutting.

Note: Media wishing to cover this event are invited to contact the Weapons Division Public Affairs Office at 989-8096 or 989-9206 no later than Thursday, Jan. 22 by noon to coordinate base access, escorting and interviews.