Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Old Town Campus (San Diego, California)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, production

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4301 Pacific Highway
San Diego, CA 92110

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center was formerly known as the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center (NCCOSC) RDT&E Division (or NRaD). It is a full-spectrum RDT&E laboratory serving the Navy, Marine Corps, and other Department of Defense and national sponsors within its mission, leadership assignments, and prescribed functions. It has facilities for conducting RDT&E and life-cycle support functions in C4ISR. These laboratories offer worldwide networking capabilities plus the ability to participate in major joint exercises. In San Diego, the center occupies more than 580 acres. Facilities are concentrated in four major areas: Topside, Bayside, Seaside, and Old Town. Extensive in-service engineering facilities, located nearby on the Old Town Campus, provide a full range of systems engineering, management, logistics, installation, and technical support.

The relocation of SPAWAR’s headquarters from Crystal City, in the Washington, DC area, to San Diego came about as a result of a 1995 Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) decision. The move of the SPAWAR headquarters staff and an associated program executive office staff, which began in April of 1996, resulted in the establishment of more than 1,000 new jobs in San Diego.

SPAWAR directs the development, acquisition, and life cycle management of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence; surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems for Navy, Marine Corps, selected joint service, allied nation and other government agency programs. The SPAWAR "corporation," which consists of the headquarters staff, a program executive office and three major Systems Centers in San Diego; Charleston, South Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia, includes more than 5,000 engineers and scientists, computer specialists, contract professionals, project managers, equipment installers, technicians and administrative support personnel.

Air Force Plant 19 is northeast of San Diego, CA. It covers 2,850 acres (the government owns only 2%) and 6.3 million square feet of floor space (the government owns 25%).

Operated by General Dynamics, the plant had a high bay area for aircraft assembly and specially configured areas for Atlas/Centaur tank assembly. Construction of AFP 19 began November 1940, and the plant opened in 1941. It was built as an assembly plant for the B-24 Liberator bomber, to augment primary design and assembly at the Lindberg Field Plant. Employment at the plant peaked at 45,000 in 1942. At the end of World War II the plant was sold as surplus. In 1957 the government reacquired the plant and constructed four support buildings for Atlas missile manufacturing and assembly. It also supported Atlas/Centaur and Shuttle/Centaur tanks and Atlas refurbishment.

During the 1980s the plant performed fabrication, minor assembly, and subassembly work for the Ground Launched Tomahawk Cruise Missile, Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL), and Launcher Control Center. On July 1, 1988, 50 inspectors from the Soviet Union arrived at Travis Air Force Base, California, to conduct inspections at: the former GLCM production facility at Air Force Plant 19 in San Diego, California; the GLCM training site at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; the GLCM training site at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; the Missile Storage Depot at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, and the Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado.

The Naval Electronics Systems Engineering Command (NAVELEX) was located at the US Air Force Plant Pacific Highway, San Diego [Plant 19], operated by General Dynamics Corporation. On November 14 and 15, 1985, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspected NAVELEX Air Force Plant 19. EPA found that seven in-service transformers situated in Building 1 were leaking and that floor areas were contaminated with PCBs. Violations of the regulations were found by EPA at Air Force Plant 19, including leakage from, and contamination by, in-service electrical transformers.

The Naval Electronics Systems Engineering Center Vallejo, CA was consolidated with the Naval Electronics Systems Engineering Center San Diego, CA, into available space in Air Force Plant #19, San Diego, vice new construction.

In 1996 the plant was transferred to the Navy, where it continued production under the Command, Control, and Ocean Surveillance Center.

enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/
www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/afp-19.htm