USS Desert Ship is a concrete blockhouse providing assembly and launch facilities simulating shipboard conditions for Navy surface-to-air weapons testing at the Naval Air Warfare Center

Naval Air Warfare Center

Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster was a U.S. Navy military installation located in Warminster, Pennsylvania and Ivyland, Pennsylvania. For most of its existence, the base was known as the Naval Air Development Center, Johnsville, NADC, or simply, Johnsville.The U.S...

 (NAWC) Weapons Division - White Sands

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...

.

Origin

The beginning of construction of the Desert Ship coincided with the start of testing of the RIM-8 Talos

RIM-8 Talos

The Bendix RIM-8 Talos was a long-range naval surface-to-air missile, and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Talos used radar beam riding for guidance to the vicinity of its target, and semiactive radar homing for terminal guidance...

 missile. Although there was a mock christening

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 upon completion of the building, the Desert Ship has never been commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 and special permission from Congress was required to name the building "USS Desert Ship". The designation "LLS" stands for "Land Locked Ship".

History

Desert Ship was originally used to test the Talos missile. Subsequent uses have included testing the Standard Missile

Standard missile

Standard Missile can refer to a family of several different American missiles:* RIM-66 Standard , a medium range surface-to-air missile, the successor of the RIM-24 Tartar missile...

, Aegis Weapons System

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System

The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is a United States Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide defense against ballistic missiles. It is part of the United States national missile defense strategy...

, and, in mid-2008, the Standard Missile 6

SM-6 Standard ERAM

The RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile , or Standard Missile 6 is a missile that has just gone into production for the United States Navy and the Royal Australian Navy...

.

The Desert Ship is one of two 'Land-Locked Ships' operated by the U.S. Navy, the other being the USS Rancocas

USS Rancocas

USS Rancocas is the nickname of a test facility at the border between Moorestown Township and Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. It is properly called the Vice Admiral James H. Doyle Combat Systems Engineering Development Site ....

 in New Jersey.

Chronology

• 13 April 1941 - Alamogordo Army Airfield established.
• December 1941 - Public land grazing leases were canceled on the newly formed Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range.
• 20 February 1945 - White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) established as a missile test range.
• 26 September 1945 - A modified Navy Tiny Tim (rocket)
  Tiny Tim (rocket)
  The Tiny Tim was an American air to ground rocket used near the end of the Second World War. One source states it was built in response to a US Navy requirement for an anti-shipping rocket capable of hitting ships outside of their anti-aircraft range, with a payload capable of sinking heavy shipping...
  
   configured as a booster for WAC Corporal
  Wac Corporal
  The WAC or WAC Corporal was the first sounding rocket developed in the United States. Begun as a spinoff of the Corporal program, the WAC was a "little sister" to the larger Corporal. It was designed and built jointly by the Douglas Aircraft Company and the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory.The...
  
   became the first missile launched by the Army at WSPG.
• October 1945 - United States Army Air Corps
  United States Army Air Corps
  The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
  
   Chief of Ordnance (OCO) invited the Navy to participate in the WSPG guided missile program.
• January 1946 - OCO offered Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) use of captured V-2 rocket
  V-2 rocket
  The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
  
  s for research; and NRL established the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel chaired by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Dr. James Van Allen
  James Van Allen
  James Alfred Van Allen was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa.The Van Allen radiation belts were named after him, following the 1958 satellite missions in which Van Allen had argued that a Geiger counter should be used to detect charged particles.- Life and career :* September...
  
  .
• 17 May 1946 - WSPG Naval Ordnance Missile Test Facility established.
• July 1946 - Navy Bureau of Ordnance
  Bureau of Ordnance
  The Bureau of Ordnance was the U.S. Navy's organization responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval ordnance, between the years 1862 and 1959.-History:...
  
   began construction of the WSPG Navy Cantonment Area.
• May 1947 - Navy began construction of the Launch Complex 35 (LC-35) blockhouse with two tiltable, 140-foot Aerobee launch towers.
• 24 November 1947 - Navy launched the first fully configured Aerobee sounding rocket, which carried cosmic-ray instruments to an altitude of 36.7 miles.
• 3 May 1949 - First launch of the Navy's Viking (rocket) reached an altitude of 50 miles.
• Late 1949 - After a V–2 was launched at sea from the deck of USS Midway
  USS Midway (CV-41)
  USS Midway was an aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class, and the first to be commissioned after the end of World War II...
  
  , the Navy intentionally toppled and exploded a fully fueled V–2 on a segment of carrier flight deck (Operation Pushover
  Operations Sandy and Pushover
  Operation Sandy was the codename for the post-World War II launch of a captured V-2 rocket from the deck of the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Midway on September 6, 1947. It marked the first launch of a large rocket, and the only time for a V-2, from a ship at sea...
  
  ) at WSPG.
• 21 November 1950 - Viking 5 set a single-stage altitude record of 107 miles.
• August 1951 - Viking set a single-stage altitude and speed record of 135 miles at 4,100 miles per hour.
• 1951 - Talos program testing moves to WSPG from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
  Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
  - About : is part of under Commander, Navy Installation Command and is located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California, approximately north of Los Angeles. Occupying three counties – Kern, San Bernardino and Inyo – the installation’s closest neighbors are the cities of Ridgecrest,...
  
  .
• August 1952 - First Talos missile launch at WSPG.
• May, 1953 - Base name formally changed from White Sands Proving Ground to White Sands Missile Range (WSMR).
• June 1953 - Construction completed for USS Desert Ship blockhouse.
• May 1954 - Viking 11 set a single-stage altitude record of 158 miles.
• April 1957 - Aerobee-Hi set a single stage altitude record of 190 miles.
• 1957 - Completion of the Desert Ship deckhouse addition enabled missile assembly to be moved from headquarters to Desert Ship.
• September 1957 - The first land-based Talos Defense Unit (TDU) was completed just west of Desert Ship.
• December 1957 - The first launch of a TDU-directed Talos scored a direct hit on the target drone.
• March 1961 - First launch of the Typhon Combat System
  Typhon Combat System
  The "Typhon Combat System" was an integrated weapons system being developed by the United States Navy. The system was being developed to replace the previous Talos, Terrier, and Tartar missile systems in service in the early 1960s. The earlier systems were determined to be vulnerable to large scale...
  
  
• 1966 - Testing of RIM-2 Terrier
  RIM-2 Terrier
  The Convair RIM-2 Terrier was a two-stage medium-range naval surface-to-air missile , and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. Originally, the Terrier had a launch thrust of 23 kN , and weight of 1392 kg...
  
   and RIM-24 Tartar
  RIM-24 Tartar
  The General Dynamics RIM-24 Tartar was a medium-range naval surface-to-air missile , and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships...
  
  missiles was shifted to WSMR from China Lake.
• 1983 - Aegis fleet fire-control system completed development at WSMR and entered fleet service.