China Lake NAWS (Armitage Field) Naval Air Weapons test base

theoklahomaaviator · Post by **theoklahomaaviator** » 24 Sep 2008, 18:35

Just wondering if anyone knows of or has any flight plans/AI aircraft for China Lake NAWS. I'm just looking to expand on the William Peeters scenery that I have. Thank You,
-Adam

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not making a request for a package, just a request for information.

firehawkordy · Post by **firehawkordy** » 10 Oct 2008, 17:04

I was assigned to NAWS-0176, a Reserve unit, at China Lake in the early 90's and if I recall the only scheduled flights were the support ones from NAWS Pt. Mugu. For the most part the flights were C-12's. Any military flights were based on the testing schedule.

While I can't and won't post an actual schedule, here's a representation of a typical day.

AM:
VX-9

2 x F/A-18 to the Range
1 x F/A-18 pilot currency, T&G

NAWS

1 x F/A-18 to the Range, HARM test

PM:
VX-9

2 x AV-8 to the Range
2 x F/A-18 pilot currency, T&G
2 x F/A-18 to the PMTC Range off of San Nicholas Island, SINKEX

NAWS

2 x F/A-18 to the Range, Bombing practice, BSU-33's x 4 MER
1 x QF-86 to the Range, Sitting Duck
1 x F/A-18 Intercept QF-86

These are based on what I saw over two and a half years there. Even though I was in the Reserves I made a few extra 2 week training sessions and extra drills during the week. You can expand the traffic plan if you want but China Lake really is slow most of the time.

You can add visiting units as I have seen Luftwaffe Tornados there at on time and Fleet units will come in for training occasionally. The Kuwaiti Hornets were tested there and were flow more than the American ones.

Remember, every other Friday is a "flex" meaning the base and operations are scaled back or shut down.

I hope this helps you out.

nickblack423 · Post by **nickblack423** » 10 Oct 2008, 19:34

Thats some good info, having been to China Lake myself on deployment in my time, I can concur that the base is relatively quiet.
Ontop of the flights noted aove, you have a Swiss Hornet permanently based there now doing trials of new Hornet gizmo's. Plus the RAF are there most of the year with either Tornado GR4 or Harrier GR9 from 41 Sqn, or Typhoon FGR4 and T3 from 17 Sqn, doing weapons and defensive suites trials.

Nick

firehawkordy · Post by **firehawkordy** » 10 Oct 2008, 20:48

I should note that although I have been over one of the ranges during a Huey gun exercise, I have no idea as to the exact location of the ranges per se. My advice would be to look at the MOA and make a guess. The Navy owns a big chunk of desert so there's lots of room to play with.

I forgot to mention that over at Inyokern Airport there are some Draken fighters in storage. They were contracted to do some testing at NAWS China Lake at one time.

China Lake is part of PMTC so you you may see some birds from Pt. Mugu over there from time to time. Pt. Mugu Targets as of this May had a some Alpha Jets, Kifers, and Hunters over there. So that's some more potential traffic.

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 11 Oct 2008, 01:13

No point in making any guesses about the locations of the ranges. Use GoogleEarth. At least 2 of the ranges are easily identifiable - look NE @7 miles, and/or NNNE @ 12 miles from the northern vertex of the airport's runway triangle.

The others take a bit more work to find and I'm kinda busy tonight.