Naval Weapons Station Point Loma (San Diego, California)

 arsenal / weapon and ammunition storage, military, United States Navy

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Located aboard the 315-acre submarine base at Naval Base Point Loma, Calif., Det. San Diego’s 36 personnel are tasked to provide reliable Mk. 48 heavyweight torpedoes, Tomahawk cruise missiles, small arms, pyrotechnics, and countermeasures to units of the U. S. Pacific Fleet submarine force. Besides storing and issuing ordnance, Detachment personnel also operate a flushing facility, which removes propulsion byproducts from Mk. 48 exercise torpedoes after they have been fired and recovered.

The history of Det. San Diego begins in February 1852, when President Millard Fillmore set aside 1400 acres of the southern portion of Point Loma, at the entrance to San Diego Bay, for military purposes. Subsequently, it was assigned to the US Army and named Fort Rosecrans, after General William Rosecrans, a Union Civil War hero and 1842 graduate of the US Military Academy. In 1898 the Army built a coastal artillery installation on the site, which remained active until 1945.

In 1959 Fort Rosecrans was turned over to the US Navy, and a Navy Submarine Support Facility was established there in November 1963. In October 1981 the base was designated as Naval Submarine Base Point Loma.

Weapons-related functions had initially been a responsibility of submarine base personnel. However, in 1995 the staff and facilities assigned to this mission became a detachment of Naval Intermediate Maintenance Facility Pearl Harbor. In 1997 the detachment became Naval Magazine Lualualei, Det. San Diego. Finally, in October 2000 the detachment was transferred to Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach as a part of the Navy’s regionalization efforts under Commander, Navy Region Southwest.

The Integrated Combat System Test Facility (ICSTF) was established as a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command on 1 October 1977. It is located on SPAWARS Support Center (SSC) military facility at Point Loma California. It was initially established to certify the operational programs that comprised the combat system of the DDG-2/15 ship classes. This role has expanded to include the CV/CVN, LHD, LHA, LSD, DD-963, FFG and the new LPD-17 ship class.

As a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), on 2 January 1992, ICSTF was formally consolidated with the Naval Ship Weapon Systems Engineering Station (NSWSES), Fleet Combat Direction Systems Support Activity, Dam Neck (FCDSSA) and the Naval Mine Warfare Engineering Activity (NMWEA) to form Port Hueneme Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (PHD NSWC). ICSTF became the PHD NSWC Detachment San Diego. In 1998, PHD NSWC Detachment San Diego became part of the NAVSEA-05 land based Distributed Engineering Plant (DEP) which was established to support design and early test of Battle Force (BF) systems.

www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/point-loma.htm
2002 CA Coastal Records Project shot of NWS Pt. Loma: www.medium.images.californiacoastline.org/images/2002/m...